Chocolate
by terra hotaru
Summary: When Axel got a new job in the minimarket, he met a very strange blond customer...things are not going to turn out very pretty for Axel when he found out how much of a tease and dangerous the blond can be. Yaoi. AkuRoku. Zemyx. AU.
1. Dangerous Blond

Ah, new story again. Yeah-- :D

**Edit 06/27/2009: **I seriously am… **HATING **myself right about… _now_. I mean, seriously. I made so many HORRIBLE grammatical mistakes… D: I hate myself so much! D: I've tried my best to edit it with the knowledge I have now. I'm sorry if there are still grammar mistakes. Seriously. WOW. –orz-

Enjoy.

**Chapter 1**

**Dangerous Blond**

Axel was a striking redhead. Why redhead? Because he had the most blazing red hair that no one would believe natural. However, it was too natural to be dyed too. He was currently studying in The Organization University in his last year. Just a couple of months and he would graduate. In order to pay for his increasing university fee, he had been working in the midnight club as a bartender, serving drinks. He was drooled over by the girls who frequently went there—to be precise, he was drooled over by _all_ girls, frequent or not, old or young. However, one day, he was wooed by one of the higher up's girlfriends and was severely beaten and fired. It was not his fault though. No. The girl had been very persistent and Axel just wasn't one to resist. Well, he tried to resist but—being pinned to a wall by one of the most beautiful girls in town… everyone would call him a fag, coward, chicken—everything—if he turned down the offer. Luckily, nothing sexual happened. It just involved touching—in _sensitive _and _important _parts and Axel was the one being touched.

Don't get it wrong. Axel was good at fighting—really _good_. However, if you were all alone, surrounded by eight muscular guys holding guns… you'd be _dead_, no matter how godly your martial arts were—it would be different if you're really God though. Thus, the fight Axel put on was just in vain. He was soon overpowered and ended up having to go away with a few broken ribs and bones—which, fortunately for him, were fully recovered in two weeks without having to go to the hospital. The redhead's recovery rate was insane. It had been mentioned several times by his friends.

The next couple of months after had been horrible for the redhead. He had no job and his financial problems were increasing. His mother gave birth to his little brother—not exactly little brother—half brother, since his mother remarried two years ago, he was given the name Sora. Sora was a cute little baby that would cause anybody who had seen him to squeal in excitement. He had short little chubby arms and legs. Even Axel loved that half brother of his. The thing he loved most about Sora was the blue in the baby's eyes. It was so cute that Axel thought he'd just rip those eyes open and take those eyeballs out—that was... downright creepy.

Right at that time, Axel's mother decided to cut off all financial help for him. Axel couldn't help but curse. "You're old enough to take care of yourself, Axel," his mother reasoned calmly, holding baby Sora who was sleeping peacefully in her embrace.

"I just lost my job!"

"Well, find another one. Don't just sit around."

"There's no job high paying enough!" Axel tried to reason again.

"Look, Axel. You're twenty-two. Any twenty-two year olds can take care of themselves."

Axel tapped his foot on the ground, irritated. "You want to disown me, aren't you? Okay. Fine," the redhead stormed out of the house.

So, for the next whole month, the redhead was desperately having a look out for any employment but no job employment was satisfying enough for him. Being a bartender and the local favorite, Axel was paid high. Now, no jobs could match up to his previous payment. Having no choice, he applied for a job at the mini market, being the cashier, and he would start working that afternoon until pass midnight. There was nothing more to tell about Axel. He was just a daily guy living in his daily boring life although one really couldn't say that he had a daily look.

It was very easy to recognize the guy, just look for a very bright shining redhead and that was him. He also had these backward shaped triangular tattoos beneath his eyes which he applied over a year ago because of a dare Seifer pulled on him. Not one to back out from a dare or challenge, Axel went to have the tattoos attached beneath his eyes. They hurt like hell. He thought he'd go freaking blind that time. It paid off though; he was rewarded with a lot of money by the filthy rich blond, Seifer.

With a growl and a strong mental curse, wearing his casual black t-shirt paired with chained necklace and jeans, he stepped in the mini market where he'd work for the rest of the night with _such_ _**low**_ salary that his dead father would keel over in his grave just because he applied for said job. In fact, Axel had no idea why he had chosen that job of all the employment offered. Something drew him into it—something evil—or maybe Axel was just thinking too much.

He just _knew_ he'd hate working there but there was no other job he could find. So this would do for now. He sat at the cashier, waiting for anyone at all to pay for their stuff. The night was silent and he just sat, just him—all alone in the mini-market with another employee arranging the stuff inside. He felt so damn bored. He started tapping his hands on the table, wondering why a mini market would open almost 24/7. He cursed himself for applying for the job. He missed the popularity back at the bar. However, he was also happy that he was getting paid for just sitting around.

Finally, after hours of sitting without doing anything, a customer came to pay for the things he bought. The customer was a blond. Well, blond was not really something to be amazed about these days especially since this blond was a guy. Axel was checking out the blond, the short little guy with enticing blue eyes. Those blue eyes felt so capturing to Axel, he had never seen something so blue before and the redhead couldn't help but be reminded of his little baby brother back at home, Sora. However, he loved the blond's blue more than Sora's. The blond stared at the redhead. His blue eyes soon narrowed into mere slits as time passed by.

"Excuse me?" he frowned, face unhappy.

Axel blinked a few times before answering. He swallowed a little, feeling the blond's voice even more captivating. "Yeah?"

"You work here, right?" the lithe boy leaned in to look at Axel's name tag, "Axel?"

Axel gulped even more, feeling the blond calling his name was very—_sexy_. He inwardly killed himself for being so horny for the night. He slapped a hand over his face and rubbed said face, taking in a deep breath. He nodded. "Yeah, what do you want?"

The blond rolled his eyes. "_Duh_, I want to buy these," he growled, pointing to the basket he had placed over at the counter. Axel set his green eyes to the things the boy had pointed—a basket _full_ of chocolate bars of any brand.

Axel frowned a bit and met his gaze with those cerulean. "You sure?"

The blond bit his lower lips, aggravated. "Do I _need_ to ask _your_ permission?" he folded his arms to his chest and started tapping his feet on the floor, staring intensely into Axel's emerald eyes. "Or do you need an ID for buying chocolates? Cause, I'm still a minor."

Axel smirked, a little bit surprised that the blond had such sharp tongue. "Not really, just wondering." The redhead began inputting using the scanner to input the prices into the computer, "So, what's your name?" he grinned, while still scanning the never ending bar of chocolate in the basket.

"None of your business, Ax-el," the blond teased.

"Right," Axel rolled his eyes and laughed. He raised his eyebrows and blinked when he had done counting the number of chocolate bars cramped up inside the basket. He couldn't believe his math. "Forty bars of chocolate?"

"I wonder why this mini market would employ someone as talkative as you," the younger male sighed.

"It's called social interaction."

"For your information," the blond leaned in closer than expected causing Axel to back away a bit out of embarrassment, "Mouth isn't just used for talking. It has an important part called _lips_," he hissed and leaned in really close to brush his lips with Axel to further point his statement and pulled away quickly. "And inside, there's this—_tongue_," the blond teased, sticking his tongue out and licking Axel's lips. "And I think you're old enough to know what I mean," he drew back.

Axel's breath hitched, his face went redder than usual that it could match his hair. He cleared his throat a bit and went back to his so called job, "That would be 93.92."

"Aww, can't you give me a little discount?" the blond pouted, staring Axel with his big puppy eyes and cutely biting his lower lip.

"Erh—" Axel gulped, feeling very nervous, inwardly cursing his beating heart and churning stomach. He wanted to do the blond a favor and gave him the discount. In fact, he wouldn't mind doing _himself_ a favor and just take the blond right then and there. The redhead bit his tongue _hard_ to get back to his common sense and tried a grin. He replied, "This is the mini market. I don't think I can give you any discount."

"Well, I went to this other mini market and the guy there paid what I buy for me," the blond pouted again almost melting Axel's heart.

Axel cleared his throat violently. If people didn't know, they'd think he was coughing blood. "I'm—not paying for these shits, blondie," he answered. Axel cringed a little when he realized how rude it must have sounded. _Great first impression. Wait—what? First impression? Why do I care?_

"I obviously ain't eating shits, asshole," the blond snapped and took out a hundred dollar bill from his wallet, handing it over to the redhead unhappily.

Axel sheepishly took the money from the furious blond and handed over the change, mentally kicking himself in the ass. "Thank you," He acted innocent and threw all of the chocolate bars in double plastic bags.

"Double," the shorter of the two mumbled. "Hey, you're pretty nice." The blond smiled, surprised that Axel was giving him double plastic bags for the chocolates he bought. Usually, he had to ask because he was really sick of the plastic bag tearing apart on his way home.

"What can I say, I'm a nice guy." Axel grinned.

"But you're still an asshole, asshole." The little teen gave the redhead a sarcastic smile.

"Well, you're just one smartie short-ass, aren't you?" Axel countered. The blond just rolled his eyes, making no effort of retaliating to the comment. After, the blond took the bag of chocolates. He gave Axel a soft smile before going off. Axel was about to sit down on his chair again. However, he cursed loudly when he felt something hard made contact with his head. He thought he was about to get a concussion. He turned, only to see a medium sized Toblerone lying on the floor.

"That's for you." The blond giggled before finally disappeared outside of the mini mart. Axel watched as the teen went away with a man, riding a bike. He couldn't see the man clearly as he was wearing a helmet.

Axel smirked and grinned and leaned down to take the toblerone, ripping it apart and took a bite. It had been too long since he had eaten a chocolate. The sweetness of the black solid bar melted when it met his mouth. He cringed a bit at the sweetness, not one to like sweet stuff. However, as he began munching it, it tasted better and better. Until at last, the toblerone was gone, lying spread inside the redhead's stomach. Axel couldn't help but wonder how the little blond would be able to still keep his body that small if he really was the one to eat all those chocolates. After all, wasn't milk supposed to make a growing boy taller? That was out of his mind for now.

--

Another boring night in the mini market… luckily though, Axel was smart enough to bring something to read. He had consider bringing porn magazines—not his, but his roommate's. Axel wasn't one to waste his precious money on pornos. It was very different for his roommate, Xemnas. Xemnas was a dark skinned guy with long silver hair and golden eyes. He was also in his last year in The Organization University. The man might be quite but he was perverted as hell. Girls said that his deep voice was sexy. Boys said that his tall built made him a perfect seme. Axel cringed, not quite understanding the meaning of "seme". However, he didn't think that he wanted to know since it must be related to some porno stuff. He was sure of it.

Anyway, Xemnas was a really rich guy and God knew where he got his money from. Axel wasn't in good terms with the man. In fact, even though they shared a room, they didn't really talk much to each other. They were freely using each other's stuff. So, that was why Axel could just take Xemnas' porn magazines without having to spend a cent buying one. It was a good way of spending time for Axel. However, the redhead soon realized that fantasizing too much was _bad_ for his health. Not only he got needy after reading those pornos, he also felt lonely too. And—it reminded him of how long it had been since he got laid. He decided once and for all to get all those perverted minds off of his brain since his baby half-brother was born. He wanted to become a good example and—throwing away all his biological urges and sexual needs were a good start. He had to start becoming a good boy by studying hard and getting a good job—then again, that was such a boring excuse of a life.

Axel yawned widely, putting the magazine he was holding down from his face. He was taken aback and his emerald eyes grew wide when he came face to face with that oh-so familiar blond. Even though three days had passed, Axel could never forget the blond. In fact, he didn't know why—the blond had been appearing in a number of his porno dreams in the last three days—to the point that it was really vulgar. Axel blushed deeply but he had a way of not letting it show and miraculously, his face stayed calm with no change of expression. He grinned widely to hide his nervousness. "Can I help you?" he asked.

The blond was apparently irritated by the question. He rolled his eyes and shook his head and smiled sweetly, "Hi to you too, asshole. Now count how much I have to pay you before I do anything harsh."

"Whoa, who bit you in the ass today?"

"My _ass_ is purr-fectly _fine_, thank you," the blond answered, obviously irritated, "except for a number of jacktards who are stupid enough to stare at it while I'm on the bus."

"Oh-kay."

"I took care of them. That should teach them well," the blond smirked darkly and dangerously.

Axel gulped, a little bit intimidated. "Took care of them? Why?"

"They glared at _my ass_, redhead. I should have ripped their eyeballs off and took it home, brew them into soup, and feed it to my dog. Too bad I don't have a dog."

Axel's eyes narrowed, a little bit disgusted while at the same time unhappy that he was addressed as 'redhead'. "Oh-kay..." he managed to mutter out and began to tear his attention away from the dangerous blond.

"You don't need to be afraid of me. I only do those to those jerks. As for an asshole like you, I guess you can count yourself special," the blond grinned seductively and jumped up, sitting on the counter.

Axel again, found himself staring face to face with the blond. He swallowed, "And—why am I special?"

"You're _sexy_," the blond purred. Axel was surprised at how blunt the blond was being. "And you look so—gay," he laughed.

"I check out girls, stranger," Axel countered.

"Really? The last time I check, Axie. _You_ are checking _me_ out."

"I am _not_."

"Alright, get back to your job," the blond jumped off and demanded.

Axel was irritated but he proceeded to checking out the basket of chocolates. It's forty-two bars all together this time. "98.43," Axel said.

"Not paying for me again?" the blond tried.

"They almost cost my three days of working in here. So, no," the redhead answered.

"Well, _thank you_," the blond replied sarcastically and paid using his credit card.

Axel handed the blond the double bags containing all the chocolates. "What'd you need all these chocolates for?"

"It's a—_secret_," the blond purred.

"What's your name?" Axel tried.

The blond seemed to think a bit, putting his index finger on his cheek, staring up the ceiling cutely. He smiled softly. "I'll tell you the next time we meet. We'll play a little game of guessing, okay?" he winked and walked away. Axel could feel his breath hitched yet again at the blond gesture.

Just as Axel was about to sit down again, something hard came striking his head again. He cursed loudly and found another chocolate on the floor that had fallen down with a _thud_. The blond gave Axel a last smile before going off, again, with an unknown man on a big motorbike and Axel found himself staring at the blond's perfect ass. Axel shook his head after he remembered about the horrible consequences that would befall him. He stared at the floor. This time the blond gave Axel a big bar of Cadbury. Axel rolled his eyes. "_Yummy_, dinner," the redhead smiled nonetheless and had the chocolate for dinner, anxiously waiting for the next time he'd meet the blond and play the little game the teen had mentioned.

--

**Edit: **Whoo, seriously. I have a lot of grammar mistakes… Then, the next chapter means… WOW… D: Anyway, hope you enjoy. And I really commend all of you who can look pass my grammar mistakes. I apologize deeply for my lack of English.

Thank you very much!


	2. Dangerous Encounter

Okay, everything gets really dangerous in here. I don't think there's many humor but I still hope that you find it enjoyable and funny. :D Many thanks for the lovely reviews!

**Chapter 2**

**Dangerous Encounter**

It was another boring and quite night for Axel over at the minimarket. The redhead was currently holding a newspaper, browsing for any job vacancy but there was nothing good enough for him. A week had passed since his last encounter with the very peculiar blond. There were two things he was considering about whether or not he should change his job. One, he had work for almost two weeks, leaving meant losing half his month salary even though there was always a way to get his way around with the money. Two, somehow, the redhead was anxiously waiting for his next encounter with the blond. Yeah, there was always a chance that the blond would never go to the minimarket to buy chocolates again. There was always a chance that the blond was merely fooling around with Axel.

Axel was enticed with the blond and he was not quite sure why. The blond was such a flirt and somehow, in a screwed up way, he liked it. When there no customer entered the minimarket, Axel would sometimes had to help with arranging stuffs into the rack and he finally found the answer why very few customer would go into the minimarket to buy anything. Everything on the rack was almost one or two bucks more expensive that the original price in any supermarket in the world—at least in America. He was somehow amazed that forty bars of chocolate cost almost a hundred bucks and now that he found the answer, he was even sure that the blond would not come back to the minimarket again for the third time.

There's nothing keeping him from giving up the job then, "Hi there."

Axel immediately raised his head when he heard the very familiar voice. Standing in front of him, smiling happily was no other than the blond he had been dreaming about in the last couple of days. He raised an eyebrow, not quite sure that the blond seemed more hyper than usual. "You seemed—really happy," the redhead tried a grin.

The blond suddenly jumped up on the counter, apparently not buying any chocolates or anything at all. "Oh yes," the blond smiled seductively. "I'm happy. Really happy, Axel," he purred. He leaned in closer and placed his lips very close to Axel's ear, licking it slightly causing the redhead to visibly shiver and shudder. Then he whispered silently, almost only blowing wind into Axel's ear. "I'm for sale. Do you want to _buy _me?" he giggled and pulled back, smiling. Their lips were mere millimeters apart.

Axel could feel his breath hitched. His whole body especially his brain did not seem to function correctly at that time—heck, it seemed like his whole system had stopped functioning—all because of just one little nasty teasing, seductive blond. He blinked a couple of times, never losing eye contact with the blond that was dangerously close in front of him, and swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat. It was obvious the redhead could not hide the shaking that came right out together with his voice. "_Buy_ you?" That was all the redhead could come up with; making sure that he did _not_ just imagining things. Fantasizing and hallucinating seemed to have become his forte these days and he was not quite sure on how to differ them out.

The blond grinned innocently and giggled cutely. _Damn._ Axel mentally cursed himself. The blond is too cute for his own sake. Axel thought that he could just melt down from seeing the smile that tugged on the blond's lips and those lips—no one could resist those lips! The redhead had his own needs but he never felt _that_ needy before and he had not even decided on his sexual preferences yet. He had considered bi but that seemed really undecided. Axel didn't want to stand on the neutral side—either gay or straight for him, and—that's beside the point now. "_Buy _me." The blond corrected with yet another of his seductive and what sounded like a cat-meow tone.

"I-I…" Axel stuttered horribly and he quickly shook his head, hoping that it would help to get the blood pumping into his brain because currently he thought his blood had stopped in his face. He didn't even want to imagine how bright red his face must have looked like. "I think you're not for sale," he corrected.

"Oh—" the blond grinned and leaned in very close again, now nibbling playfully at the redhead's ear—like a cat finding a new plaything to toy with. "I _am_ for sale, _if_ you want to buy. You have to be able to afford it though," he laughed richly.

"Why? I mean—what happened to you?" Axel asked, mentally killing himself later for muttering out such stupid questions.

"Aww, redhead," the blond reached out and cupped Axel's chin. "I like you. You are so cute, unlike my boyfriend there."

Axel raised an eyebrow again and took a step back, "Boyfriend?"

"Yeah. I'm cheating on my boyfriend because of you, Axel." There again, the blond purred out the redhead's name. Axel didn't think he could stand another second of being there with the blond. It was suffocating. "Aren't you happy?"

"I—am not!" Axel snapped. Not really happy with the whole thing. After all, he got into all this mess because of the same thing. "Go back to your boyfriend—" Axel paused for a bit, not knowing the blond's name, "whoever you are. Just go," he pointed to the automatic door leading outside the minimarket with the big green sign of _exit_ written above.

"Axie, Axie... you can't chase your customer away," the blond said in a singsong. "Don't you think that's against the code?"

"I don't know any co—"

Before the redhead could finish his sentence, the blond had jumped off the counter and pushed him to the counter behind, pinning him down. The lithe blond took hold of the shirt in covering Axel's chest and gripped it tightly. He stood on tiptoe so that he could get himself to at least an equal level of height with the much taller redhead. He ended up having to crawl on the counter. Axel was surprised at how agile the blond was, just climbing up to the counter and over him like that. Then softly but demandingly, the blond pressed his lips on Axel's. Axel froze at the sudden contact. He had seen it coming but he made no effort to push the blond off. He didn't want to. In fact, the lips on his felt really good—soft, tender, absolutely _delicious_.

It started off with a one sided-kiss from the blond. The blond didn't stop even when he was well aware of Axel not returning his action. He rested his lips there, occasionally sticking his tongue out to lick the lips that belonged to Axel. Soon, the redhead came back to his senses. When the blond was sticking his tongue out, he parted his lips and took the tongue, sucking and nibbling on it. Axel soon took hold of the situation, stood up and took the blond with him. The blond cleverly wrapped his legs around Axel's waist. Axel's hand slid down to the blond's ass so he could hold him in place. The blond's back soon met the wall.

Even with the security camera there, the both didn't care. Sounds of moans, lips smacking lips, and wet sounds could be heard echoing throughout the silent minimarket. The heated kiss didn't end. Axel stuck his tongue into the blond's throat while the blond was fighting for dominance—even though he's fine with Axel dominating but he didn't want to give the redhead an easy time. Hands were soon put into work. Axel's hand found its way inside the blond's shirt and began sliding and rubbing, feeling every skin his hands could find while the blond concentrated on somewhere else, the redhead's pants. With high agility, the blond unzipped Axel's jeans and sneaked his hands inside Axel's elastic boxers, their lips remained intact with none of them wanted to separate their intimate contact anytime soon.

Axel groaned and moaned with pleasure into the kiss when he felt that little and smooth hand wrapped around him. However, much to their disappointment, before they could get into the juicy part of their say—_intimate encounter_—someone stepped into the minimarket. That and that they had to disconnect their lips in order to breath. It was no one special, just some stranger which Axel could make out as a customer. The person stood there, staring in awe at the scene of the blond's hand still inside Axel's pants. Minutes later, she finally scurried out of the minimarket with a loud squeal, covering her reddened face saying something in the lines, "_Oh my God! I can't believe I just saw __**that!**__" _

Axel rolled his eyes and let the blond down, letting him stand on the ground. The blond took out his hand. Axel stepped away and corrected his pants, already feeling the ache of losing contact. He had to take care of that later, no more like; he had to hold that in. The blond smiled sweetly and approached the redhead, resting a hand on Axel's shoulder. "We can continue, you know. I'm not one to let a mere interruption stop all that."

"N-No, thanks."

"You don't sound too sure. Don't you think that was really _hot_ just now? Don't you, Axie?" the blond purred again. He sure knew his way around Axel.

"It was," Axel replied truthfully. A bright idea came around Axel's mind soon. "We had to stop."

"Why's that?"

"Because I don't know what name I should moan later."

The blond laughed heartily. "That's a good point. So, I said that we'll play a little game of guessing, right?" Axel nodded. "My name started with an 'R'."

"R-r…" Axel trailed off. What kind of game was that? How could he just figure out the blond's name by a single letter? "Rufus?" he muttered out the first name that came into his mind.

The blond rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, aren't you a genius?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his words. "And I thought you'd be able to figure it out easily after all that intercourse we just had," the blond purred again with a seductive smile but the smile soon faded and his face straightened into a sadistic expression. "My name is _not_ Rufus, asshole. I don't think I'll live through this day holding the name of the naked mole rat over at the Kim Possible's show."

Axel grinned at the sudden switch of attitude. If he was trying to be honest to himself, he would say that he liked the blond's attitude. "Who knows? Maybe I'm referring to Rufus Shinra."

"Well, that's even lamer," the blond snapped, shoving his hands inside his pockets.

"Why's that?"

"_Duh_, he's my ex. Like you don't know," the blond rolled his eyes, expression more irritated than ever.

"How should I know? You're a total stranger to me," Axel frowned and chuckled.

"Yeah, right."

Axel felt strange all of a sudden but decided to dismiss that feeling of his. "Wait, your _ex_? What? You're gay?"

The blond burst out in a huge laughter then. He was trying his best to hold back his laugh but found it impossible. The laughter ceased a minute later. "You are a retard," he came up with a conclusion. "Do you really need to ask, Axel? Of course I'm _gay!_ You can consider me not if you somehow found out that Rufus is female or something. Or better yet if you somehow found out that the anatomy of your body is fake." Axel's jaw dropped open at the comment. The blond laughed. "It felt real enough when I touched it and believe me, I've touched several—no, a lot."

"Oh-kay." Axel was yet again dumbstruck by the boldness of the blond.

"What? Don't tell me you're one of those homophobes."

"I wouldn't be indulge in the hot moments with you if I am," Axel grinned, surprised that the statement came out just like that from his mouth.

Bright blue eyes shone and widened, then a smile painted the blond's face. "You know what. That's the smartest remark I've heard from you since I met you. You're not so dumb after all."

Silence. "So…" Axel trailed off. "You're not buying chocolates today?"

"No, my boyfriend said it's not good for my body. Well, even though he really loves to do kinky stuffs with all those chocolates while we're on bed. He's cute sometimes but—not as cute as you, Axel. I can already think of some really kinky idea with you on bed."

"Uh—" Axel muttered shakily.

"You're thinking the same thing too, right? You've been having some dreams about me right? Where you wake up and find yourself wet?" the blond leaned in again and whispered in Axel's ear.

_Wake up and find yourself wet_. Those words rang in Axel's ear, echoing endlessly as if his head was nothing more than an empty shell filled with the last part of the statement the blond had just muttered out. _Wet._ Then, it was the _wet_ word that began ringing in his ears. How could the blond know? Axel tried to seek for the answers in that short amount of time but none came. Yes, he had woken up wetting his bed after numerous erotic dreams involving him and the blond and he found it really weird. "I do _not_," the redhead quickly denied the question.

"Are you sure?" the blond smiled knowingly. "There's no use hiding things from me, you know," he traced a line down the redhead's lips to his neck with his index finger. "I know you too well, Axel."

"How?"

"I—just know," the blond used his secretive tone. "I love you, Axel."

"What?"

The blond giggled wildly. "Keep having dreams about me, mmkay?" the blond winked. "I wouldn't mind making it come true when—you made up your mind."

"Could you at least give me your name?" Axel tried.

"Hmm—I don't know," the blond seemed to be thinking. "What did you call me when you dream of me?"

Axel looked up the ceiling, thinking about his dreams but currently, neither image nor remembrance came into his mind. Heck, he had even forgotten about what he dreamt about. Sure, all had been erotic but the dreams had some stories behind it. He was quite sure of that even though he couldn't quite remember.

"Try to figure it out," the blond smiled, taking a few steps back. "I'm sure you'll remember me, Axel."

"Why did you sound like you know me?"

"Really?"

Axel narrowed his eyes. "So—what did you come here for if you're not buying anything?"

"I just wanted to offer myself for sale. Too bad a certain asshole didn't want to fork his money out to buy me."

"Just that?"

"No, there's some revenge I have to plan out," the blond answered sweetly. Before Axel could ask, the blond had quickly continued, "but we can leave that be. Anyway, I wanted to see you. I miss you, Axel. You miss me too, right?"

"Uh, no," Axel lied.

The blond chuckled. "See you next time, redhead," he smiled, waved, and walked away. Axel watched as the blond disappeared. However, the blond suddenly turned and threw a solid bar straight to Axel's forehead. The redhead threw out a curse. "Almost forgot to give you a chocolate. I have to get back to my boyfriend. Bye, Axie." And so, the very peculiar blond really disappeared. Axel watched as the blond took the helmet being offered to him by the motorbiker and hopped on to the bike.

"Boyfriend?" Axel muttered and ran a hand through his wild untamed hair. "What? His boyfriend drove him here to cheat with me? That's—weird…"

Indeed, it was weird. Axel bent down and took the bar of yet another toblerone and went back to sit. He threw away the newspaper that was lying on his counter. It would be a while before he decided to find a new job. He had to find out more about the blond. Something in the blond stirred up the redhead and Axel had no idea what. Besides, he wouldn't mind making his dreams come true and having a few more encounters like just now. It was a dangerous encounter filled with pleasure.

--

Ooo, quite short there. XD Mooo—please tell me what you think. I'm not quite sure about this one. Thank you!


	3. Dangerous Vengeance

Alright, I absolutely have no idea why all of this became such a "dangerous" chapters. O.o In case anyone's confused, this story is meant to be confusing until everything is revealed. Basically, I'm putting the reader in the position of Axel where he's basically clueless about everything. And—I'm clueless too because I didn't even know where this is going. In addition, this story will be AkuRoku centric. That means, other side characters won't be mentioned much. XD Alright, read on.

**Edit: **Thanks to **pinkyblues** for pointing my silly mistake out. :3

**Chapter 3**

**Dangerous Vengeance**

After the whole event and the bothersome night, Axel went home, exhausted. He immediately threw his backpack down somewhere in the poor sty of a living room and walked into his bedroom. Axel was never one to care about cleanliness and neatness. To hell with what happen with his living room, as long as he could live through fine with it. Most people who had visited Axel's small apartment, decided to never step into the place again due to the horror. Strangely though, there weren't any animal that grew inside the apartment no matter how filthy the living room may seem. Even his roommate, Xemnas didn't bother to take care of it. In fact, Xemnas contributed to half of the disaster in the living room too.

First of all, there was what seemed like a sofa in the corner of the living room. It was so old and torn apart that you could not really tell that it was the sofa that Axel once sat on—well once, now, he did not even bothered to look or even touch it. Part of the reason the redhead didn't want to take a glance at the sofa was because every time he saw it, a sentence always came across his mind—something in the line, '_Dang! I knew I should have sold it!'_ In the past, the sofa's purpose was for the redhead to sit on, to enjoy life in front of the TV. Ever since Xemnas moved in Axel didn't sit on the sofa anymore. Why? Because later on, it had become Xemnas' base where--the silver head man would bring back any stranger to do all sorts of nasty things. Now the sofa's true purpose was really be the resting place of all those cup noodles and pizza box which had remained there for several weeks. The redhead made miracles sometimes.

On the table sat even more cup noodles and kitchen utensils which had yet to be cleaned. Noodles, pizza leftovers, and stains of alcohols and juice could be seen on the carpet. Luckily the apartment didn't smell thanks to the magic of febreze or what people called the aroma spray. The kitchen was even worse than the living room. The redhead basically had to tiptoe in order to reach his bedroom safely without stepping on anything.

However, for now, the redhead didn't care on what he stepped on. Let the bedroom become one with the apartment, he would say. It was a tiring night—exciting, to be precise. Soon, the redhead fell into his slumber.

--

What happened next was blurry. Axel found himself in a very dark and cold place, alone, sitting. He couldn't quite make out his surroundings as it was all just shrouded in darkness. However, soon, everything came into view. Suddenly, as his vision became clear, his hearings malfunctioned. He couldn't hear anything. He just saw himself sitting on a very strange place—on a bench, in the park. Afterwards, there came a blurry tinge of blonde and two shades of cerulean and everything turned to nothing.

Axel awakened with the word, "Roxas," coming from his mouth. It was already morning and the redhead didn't want to think or make out what the heck that was all about. It was time for morning classes.

--

There was nothing interesting in the Organization University except for the math teacher, Luxord, who raged on about functions, complex number, and so on. Not important. So, night came and it was time for Axel to go to the minimarket again. Sadly, the blond was nowhere in sight.

The blond showed up exactly four days later with a pouting face. Axel had seen the blond from faraway but he pretended he didn't notice and went back to reading his automobile magazine. He didn't want to show out that he was curious about the blond—no! He was _not_ curious. Axel watched the blond's every move. The blond didn't directly go to Axel; instead, he took a basket and went inside the minimarket, walking over to the aisle of chocolates. Axel's eyes widened as he watched the blond swiped all of the chocolates in the shelves and let it all fell into the basket he's taking along.

With much effort, since the chocolates was obviously very heavy and the blond was noticeably small, he carried the basket overloaded with chocolates bar and bring it up to the counter, straight in front of Axel's face with a loud _bang_. Axel was about to open his mouth and muttered out a question but decided to do against it and closed his mouth again. He got to his job and began scanning every last bar of the chocolates until it was all counted and he was panting heavily, feeling the sore in his arm--it was not fun at all to scan all those chocolates. Finally, he opened his way of vision to the blond's face.

The blond didn't seem happy, not at all. Anyone could see that he was in a _very_ outrageously poor mood. He glared at the emerald eyes that belonged to Axel. "Are you sure you're going to buy all these?" Axel asked innocently, pointing to the mountains of chocolates.

"Shut up," the blond retorted.

"Whoa, there. Whatever happened, calm down."

"What do you care? What do you care about me, Axel?!" the blond went into an outrage.

"Look, I don't know what had gotten you into this mood but I'm against venting it on me," Axel snapped, refused to let the blond do whatever he wanted with him.

To Axel's surprise, the blond suddenly broke down on his knees and began sobbing. "I hate it…" he sobbed, "I hate those people! I hate them!" he shouted, hands holding on to the counter, head tilted downwards. "They don't have the right to tell me what to do!"

"What?" was all the redhead said. Axel walked around the counter to get to the blond, kneeling down; putting a hand on the blond's back, rubbing it softly. He had never seen a boy crying before. Wasn't crying supposed to be a girl's job?

"They don't have the right, Axel!" he shouted, looking up and meeting his gaze with Axel's. Bright blue eyes were welled up with tears and Axel could feel his heart stopped. Axel didn't know what to say. He didn't even know what to do. He was clueless and he knew he would be better off not asking about it. "I don't wanna be controlled," the blond sobbed violently.

"You don't have to be controlled."

"I don't care what people think. I'm going to do it no matter what," the blond muttered, tears stopped.

"What? What are you going to do?" Axel asked, feeling worried all of a sudden. He remembered the blond mentioning something about revenge. Receiving no reply from the blond, the redhead added, "You're not going to kill someone, are you?"

The blond looked up and made eye contact with the redhead again. He tilted his head to the side, looking perplexed and puzzled. "What did you mean?" he asked sweetly, big drops of tears running down his cheek.

"Are you going to murder someone?"

"Huh?" the blond looked even more confused.

"You said something about revenge and—last time you talked about those people that stared at your ass and about how you wanted to deal with them," Axel explained, to point out what he meant.

The blond giggled brightly then. "Of course not," he continued giggling. "I'm not going to kill anybody." He smiled sweetly. Afterwards, he crawled on all fours to Axel, pressing his lips to Axel's ear. "If I'm going to kill anybody, it's going to be you," he said with such dangerous tone that Axel couldn't help but shiver—either at the pleasure of being that close to the blond or at being threatened.

"What?"

The blond pulled back and grinned. "That is if I'm crazy enough to want to make you only mine. Here's the rhetorical question. Do you think I'm crazy?"

Silence. Axel eyed the blond cautiously, trying to search for the correct answer. "Why would you want me to be yours?"

The blond laughed and stood up. "That's an answer I want to hear and I hope you'd figure out an answer to your own question." Axel frowned. "Did I sound weird?" Axel nodded. The blond chuckled. "Yeah, I'm weird sometimes." And he offered out a hand to Axel. Axel took the hand and stood up. When Axel was about to take his hand back, he found out that the blond was gripping his hand tightly, not about to let go and with the strength Axel thought was impossible, the redhead was pulled to the blond. The blond tiptoed and press his lips on Axel's. Later, the blond jumped on the redhead. Axel was obviously caught off guard as the both ended up falling down to the floor with the blond on top of the redhead. Their lips didn't disconnect even for a single millisecond.

Axel's brain froze altogether, trying to make up an answer on why he was being sexually attacked. Could it possibly because of his good looks? That he was simply irresistible? Why was he asking so many questions? It was not like he hadn't been jumped before. He realized that it was not the time to think. He either should shove the blond off or continue where they left off the last time they were interrupted. 

His rational mind told him to push the blond off while his wild mind searching for pleasure shouted at him to return the favor. Miraculously, Axel's rational mind won this time.

The blond was more than confused when Axel pushed him off, separating their contact. The both panted; out of breathe because of the kiss, staring at each other. "You—don't like it?" the blond asked, voice almost a whisper, saddened.

Axel pulled himself back up on his elbow and sat there. "I liked it," he answered honestly and the blond brightened visibly. "But it's not right."

"What's not right?" the blond asked again.

"All of this. You, me. Who are you? I don't even know your name. You're just here to buy chocolates and you suddenly jumped me. Tell me what's right from all of this," the redhead demanded.

"I love you," the blond muttered out softly.

"No, you don't. You're just playing around. You've got a boyfriend and you're what? Fourteen?"

"Fifteen," the blond corrected unhappily.

"Fifteen. You're still young," Axel grinned. "I don't do pedophile-y stuff. I'm 21. I don't want to go in jail for this."

"You won't."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because I love you."

"Kid, you're beginning to sound very weird. Look, I don't know you. I work here and you're a customer. We're both strangers."

"I'm not a kid."

"I don't want to call you a kid. I don't know your name."

The blond grinned happily. "The second's letter is 'o'."

"I've had enough with the game of guessing, kid. I hate to be fooled around. Go back to your boyfriend."

"That's the second time you chase me away," the blond smirked.

"Kid, I hate to do that but—"

"I am not fooling you around. You're the one fooling around, Axel," the blond said with a grim and determined voice. "You're always living in this foolishness. You always want to forget. Why? I'm here to make you remember but you're still running around, hiding."

"What are you saying?"

"I don't want to tell you anything. I want you to remember. Remember and you will know."

"I don't know anything."

"Yeah," the blond laughed. "I'll come back around when you're feeling better."

"You mean you won't let me go?"

"Do you honestly want me to?"

Axel didn't reply. He just watched as the blond walked away. The blond stopped halfway, taking the chocolate from the counter and threw it to Axel's head. Axel cursed loudly and the blond said sweetly. "Remember to arrange these all back to the shelves. Revenge is so sweet, you know." At that, the blond really disappeared.

Axel didn't quite catch on to what was going on. Later, he only sighed as he took back the mountain of chocolates for rearranging.

--

"_Revenge is so sweet."_ Those last words that the blond, which Axel currently knew as Ro from their recent encounter rang in his ears for several days. Axel was torn between wanting to find another job and made himself completely vanished from the area so that the blond couldn't find him or just continue delving on further. The more gave it a thought, the more he couldn't make his decision. Thus, he ended up still working at the minimarket.

Several days later after all that, when the redhead walked to work as usual, he found out that the minimarket had been closed down. There was nothing left, only the empty building. Axel was shocked and he only stared, standing at the entrance of the minimarket. Damn it! He hadn't received his payment yet! He couldn't stop cursing and wondering what happened. He jumped a little when he felt a hand rested on his lanky shoulder.

"Hi, Axel." It was the blond, smiling sweetly at him.

"The minimarket, it's…"

"Oh that. Serves them right, you know. They shouldn't have sold me stuffs that expensive. After all, I hate liars and cheaters," he giggled happily.

"What? You mean you did all this?" the redhead frowned. It was impossible for someone as the blond to just close down a shop.

"Yeah. Why? A _mini_ market like this could be easily detached and bulldozed if you want it to," the blond replied with a smile gracing his delicate face.

"Are you crazy?"

"Aww, we had already discussed about that, haven't we? And you haven't found the answer yet? If you really must know, Axel, it's a-secret," the blond put his index finger to his lips and winked.

"But how?" the redhead was amused and amazed.

"I have my way around, Axie. You don't need to worry about that. You should be happy about this," the blond reasoned. "I saved everyone from the dread of this minimarket. They are stealing from people by selling everything a buck or two more expensive than the price."

"How can I be happy? I've worked for three weeks and I haven't received my payment yet!" the redhead sounded desperate.

"Aww. I can pay you tenfold if you want."

"Huh?"

"Come to my house tomorrow and I'll pay you tenfold everyday for what you're paid here."

"Tenfold every day?" the redhead muttered out, couldn't quite believe what he had just heard.

"I never lie even though I may cheat. No, not to you, Axel," the blond stood and approached the redhead. "Now, entertain me."

"Entertain you?"

"Entertain me and I'll pay you the easy money."

Axel took several steps back. "I might be in a craze for money but I'm not going to stoop so low, Ro."

"Wow, you called me my name," the blond laughed. "Figured out my name yet?"

Axel stopped as the blond halted. "Roy?"

"Roy?" the blond pouted. "That's the best you could come up with?"

"You must be Roy," Axel grinned widely.

"No, you asshole. I am not Roy. Roy is like the name of that stupid colonel over at Full Metal Alchemist anime."

"He's not stupid. He could summon fire from his hand," Axel debated.

"And you think that's cool?"

"No, not really."

The blond grunted for a second and then eyed the redhead. "Third word is 'x'."

"Rox?" _Roxas_. The name came springing into the redhead's mind.

"You should be able to figure it out by now," the blond grinned hopefully.

"Roxoy?" Axel refused to mutter out the name Roxas. He couldn't understand why.

"You bastard! I'm not some freaking soy sauce. I'd rather die than have that name attached to me," the blond growled. "Do you really need five encounters to know my name?"

"Five encounters?"

"My name is only five words. I couldn't believe you've forgotten it. So much for best friends forever, Axel. Gee, _thanks_," Roxas put a hand to his forehead, sarcasm dripping from every words he had said.

_Roxas_. Axel knew the name. Five words. It fits correctly. _Roxas_. But—how could the redhead know the blond's name when he didn't even know him? He had no memories whatsoever regarding Roxas. Yet, Roxas was talking like they had known each other for a long time. After all, it's not possible to forget someone that easily right? Even if he'd forgotten, he would at least have a little tinge of remembrance. And it was the blond we're talking about. Axel couldn't imagine why he would forget. Roxas must have mistaken him for someone else.

"Hello? Anybody there?" Roxas waved his hands in front of the redhead's face.

Axel snapped out of his thought and brought back his focus to Roxas. "Sure, Rox."

"Huh?"

"Where's your house?"

Roxas put on a confused face but smiled later and pointed to the east side of the town. "It's right there, the big mansion over at the edge of the town near the beach. You won't miss it."

"What—"

Before Axel could finish his sentence, the blond had suddenly jumped him again—this time not on the lips but on the neck. Even though Axel was caught off guard, he remained steady so the two didn't fall off to the cold ground. Roxas cleverly hooked his legs around Axel's waist and began nibbling on the redhead's neck. He smiled when he elicited a moan from Axel. Soon, their lips were connected again. Axel didn't hold back this time. He didn't find any reason to.

However, before they could go on any further, Roxas stopped and pulled away, staring at the back of Axel with his bright cerulean eyes. Axel was confused and he turned around to look at what Roxas was staring at. He found a teen, shorter than him, glaring at him unhappily.

"Well, hi," Roxas purred and smiled sheepishly.

--

Nyuh okay. I have to stop it here. So, let's see. I've lost my touch on the humor part. For that, I apologize. I hope I didn't disappoint you. Thank you! Please tell me what you think. :D


	4. Dangerous New Job

**Chapter 4**

**Dangerous New Job**

There was an awkward silence between the three male standing in front of the mini market and no one seemed to have any idea on how to break the ice. Axel mostly had no clue what was going on. He began to curse loudly inwardly on how he had gotten into this situation. There was this blond that's hanging on him and didn't seem like he's going to let go anytime soon. Well, he wouldn't mind if it's just him and the blond. However, this third person really irked him. The lilac haired teen was just standing there. Half of his face was covered by his hair causing his left eye to also be sheltered underneath his strange colored hair. The teen was wearing a black tight long sleeves shirt accompanied by skin tight pants which were also black. The other eye that was exposed was glued to Axel's—not glaring, but merely staring.

"Hi there, Zexion," Roxas' rich voice broke through the heavy air. The blond was smiling sweetly despite the intense atmosphere that was surrounding them. He nuzzled into Axel's neck and began kissing and nibbling fervently as if Axel's neck was a bar of chocolate he had craved for so long.

"I thought you said you won't meet him again," the teen, whom by now Axel known as Zexion, finally spoke. His deep and emotionless voice cut through silence that had formed again second ago.

Axel could feel Roxas smirked in his kiss on his neck. "I thought you said you didn't care," he replied easily. Voice came out as a muffle as he was busying himself with Axel's shoulder and unbuttoning the redhead's shirt.

Axel moaned and grunted as Roxas' kisses became hotter as the seconds passed by. He didn't like any of the ministration the blond gave him but he couldn't contain the pleasure he got from him. Axel growled and shoved the blond away. "Get of off me," he said, trying to contain his emotions, holding the blond and pushing him off his waist causing the little guy to fall butt down on the heavy asphalt road.

"Ow, that hurts," Roxas pouted, rubbing his butt that was abused. His cerulean eyes were staring at the emerald's that belonged to Axel. Big and blue almost like those puppy dog eyes that could make anybody to listen and abide by his wish. Axel somehow knew what Roxas was playing and he tried his best to avoid those stare, breaking the eye contact and directed his attention towards the teen. "Axel…" the blond moaned. "That hurts, Axel."

Axel rolled his eyes. Wasn't it obvious that he did not care? Why was Roxas acting like that? In addition, he couldn't believe that he played right into Roxas' trick. He reached out his hand, hoping to help the blond to stand up. Roxas took that chance instantly without sparing even on second. He jumped up and closed his lips with Axel's, hungry as ever. Axel growled and shoved the blond away again. He cursed. "What are you trying to do?!"

Roxas smiled sheepishly and at the same time devilishly. "I'm trying to jump you, Axel," he answered innocently with a hungry cat's voice.

"What the… don't you see that your boyfriend is here?" Axel frowned, couldn't quite believe what the blond was trying to pull.

"Boyfriend? Zexion?" Roxas smiled. Axel nodded. "I wish he were my boyfriend then I wouldn't have to deal with that guy," the blond's face turned sullen.

"He will not be happy if he found out about this," the teen spoke, crossing his arms to his chess. "Especially if he caught you like this."

"He doesn't care any of that."

"You really think he would stay indifferent?" Zexion asked.

Roxas smiled softly. "You're the one who got me into this, Zexion."

"I told you to forget about him," the lilac haired teen pointed his index finger to Axel.

"He may have forgotten about me but I can't forget about him. I thought you know about that."

"Wait a minute. What the hell are you guys talking about?" Axel cut in.

"How can you forget, Axel?" Roxas asked with a deep and miserable voice. "Why do you want to forget?"

Axel frowned. There he was again with the blond asking him such strange questions that he didn't have any clue about not to mention an answer. "We should go. If _he _find out, you'll get in trouble."

"Alright," Roxas smiled. "I'll be looking forward to see you tomorrow, Axel," he waved and walked away with the lilac haired teen. Zexion stood for a second, staring at the redhead, seemingly trying to catch an image of Axel inside his head and the both disappeared into the dark night, riding away in the big motorcycle.

Axel ran a hand through his hair, trying to register in what's going on. He opted to not thinking too much since he'd be working in Roxas' house tomorrow.

--

"_You'd come for me right, Axel?"_

"_I will, Roxas. I promise."_

--

The redhead stood in awe, staring at the big mansion called "Roxas' house". He had never seen a building so enormous before. He rubbed his eyes several times, wondering if he merely had wild imagination or even a dream—it was early in the morning after all. He had decided to skip his classes and came to check out the job offer that would pay him ten times the salary he was paid for. Sure, he had heard of people saying that it was huge but this was—simply enormous. He was sure that it could fit five or even six of his house in there just by looking at it. He raised an eyebrow and wondered if the blond was trying to trick him._ "I never lie even though I may cheat. No, not to you, Axel." _He had this strange dream again last night and it was about the blond. He was certain that he never met him before. If he had forgotten like Roxas had said, he should have some certain remembrance but it was obvious that he had no clue.

Axel sighed. "I need the money."

He stepped slowly, approaching the front door of the mansion. He snapped his neck to look at how tall and big the front door was. It was a two door entrance and it was unbelievably tall. His neck made a strange sound when he looked up. Thankfully, it was still in a good shape. "And this door could open?" he wondered out loud, frowning and laughing sarcastically. "Is… this freaking door supposed to open?" he poked the cold metal door and he jumped and yelped when the big door opened up with a very loud deafening noise.

"Axel! I've been waiting!" Out came the blond from the entrance. The blond ran and embraced the redhead with open arms. He hugged the redhead's skinny waist tightly. "I'm so glad you really come this time."

"Oh-kay…" Axel was indeed dumbfounded. "This…is _your _house?"

Roxas giggled happily. "You really have a bad memory. Didn't I tell you that yesterday?" he laughed, standing on tiptoe with his arms around the redhead's neck. His cerulean eyes bored deep into Axel's confused stare.

"So… you've got a filthy rich father?"

Roxas seemed to be thinking as his eyes grew wide and then narrowed. "No," he smiled and released his arms from Axel, losing the contact. He put his finger to his cheek and eyed Axel. "More like I have a filthy rich boyfriend," he grinned.

"That…doesn't make sense."

"You're thinking too much, Axie. Just come inside, mmkay?" Roxas invited seductively, going inside without waiting for the redhead. It was until then Axel noticed that Roxas was only wearing very thin pajamas and he thought he would have nosebleed just watching the little blond moved.

Axel's breath hitched. The inside of the mansion was—purely extreme, to put it simply. It was a long hallway leading into somewhere unknown and there were three big chandeliers lining on the roof and lighting the way with golden glows. There was no one there and it was very quiet—just the sound of their footsteps and the sound of Roxas sniffling and sneezing sometimes. It was quite cold in there and Axel felt the sudden urge to run up to the blond and hug him. He wanted to feel the warmth radiating from that little body.

"Hey, Axel?"

"Huh? Yeah?" Axel snapped back to his mind and saw Roxas facing him.

"I can give you two choices—regarding your job here. You can choose to stay with me all day and let me do anything to you—and I mean _anything," _he smiled in a torturing way. "Or…you can just choose to clean up this mansion. I'd rather you not choose the latter one."

"Clean up this _whole_ mansion?" Axel's jaw dropped.

"Yeah." Roxas smiled sweetly. "Not too bad, I'd say…but I'd rather you to stay with me."

Axel cringed at the idea. Staying with Roxas was not truly a bad thing but the images that formed in his head made him shiver. He had no idea what Roxas would do to him. There was always a possibility that the blond would do nothing but it was highly unlikely seeing his weird behavior.

"Make your choice," Roxas said softly.

Axel felt like he couldn't really trust the blond standing in front of him. There were these weird emotions that had been bugging him ever since that encounter with the teen named Zexion the day before. It was really scaring him out and the more he thought about it, the more he was sure that Roxas was telling a lot of lies to him. There were a lot of flaws and doubts regarding what Roxas had been telling him all along. One, didn't Roxas said once that the man who ride the big motorbike was his boyfriend? If so, Zexion should be Roxas' boyfriend but the blond said that he was not and from what it seemed, there was another person behind all of these. Second, why was Roxas so persistent with him? Well, that was more like a question. Third, if Roxas lived in this huge mansion that his boyfriend had provided him, was it really wise to invite him to work there? Fourth, as Roxas had said, he was having this really kinky sex with his boyfriend involving those chocolates he had bought. If so, didn't it make sense to conclude that Roxas and his boyfriend had a good relationship? Why would he cheat? "_Roxas is a bitch."_ The sentence came into Axel's mind.

Axel shook his head immediately. _He is not a bitch. _He quarreled against himself.

"_What makes you think so?"_

_He seemed kind and cute and he cried, remember? That proved how weak he is, he couldn't possibly cheat because of a no good reason. _

"_You liked him."_

_I am not._

"So, have you made up your mind?" said the rich voice of the blond, asking impatiently with a smile tugged on his face.

"I will… _not_ clean this mansion."

Roxas beamed. "That means you're going to stay with me!" he jumped in excitement. "I was worried that you would rather clean up this whole mansion. It's really no fun."

"Tell me about it," Axel rolled his eyes and chuckled. Suddenly, a lump formed in his throat and he had to swallow really hard to get it down.

"Come to my room, Axel," Roxas said seductively, walking ahead, leaving the redhead behind.

"Your room?" Axel muttered but followed the blond nonetheless.

--

"This… is supposed to be a room?" Axel whispered in disbelieve. Never before had he seen a room that huge before that he thought it was a courtyard. Even though it might look like an old mansion outside, inside, it was filled with high technology luxury. Projector, multiple game consoles, table tennis, a huge bed with a heart design as the headboard, and a big screen window were all that was inside that huge excuse of a bedroom.

"Yeah, _he_'s the one that bought this all for me. Boring huh?" Roxas smiled.

"Boring?" Axel cringed. He would give anything in order to have that luxury—anything at all.

"Yeah," the blond's face grimaced.

Axel wondered why the blond was acting very weird and he found out later that there was no one in the mansion except him and the blond. So, Roxas was all alone in the mansion?

"But, you're here to accompany me now. _He_ only comes back once a week. That's no fun."

"Who's _he_?"

"My boyfriend."

"What's his…"

"Have you figured out my name?" Roxas asked suddenly and stepped closer to the redhead causing said redhead to take a few steps back, not ready to get jumped so early in the morning.

Axel shook his head.

"Well, that's not good, don't you think?"

"Why's that?" Axel frowned and he couldn't believe that he had _yelped_ when he found himself back to a wall. He _yelped!_ He couldn't help but curse and kill himself mentally.

Roxas chuckled sweetly, pinning the redhead to the wall with his small body. He slowly traced his fingers up Axel's arms and he smiled when he felt the redhead shivered under his touch. "Seriously, Axel. What do you think about me?"

Axel gulped down the lumped that had formed in his throat and he hastily tried to calm down his throbbing hand that was growing impatient in wanting to feel the blond's body. "You're a bitch." Axel purred against his own will.

"Yes, I am. But you love me even though I'm a bitch, right?"

"Roxas…" Axel called out.

"So, you _do_ know my name now. That's great. Now, we can get into this," Roxas stood on tiptoe and purred closely near Axel's ears. Then, he stuck his tongue out and licked said ear, earning a soft moan from the redhead.

"Into what?" the redhead tried desperately to be calm even though he could feel his lower region in pain.

"This is my bedroom—need I tell you that it's soundproof?" the blond cooed.

"Damn it!" Axel cursed.

Not wanting to hold his growing urge anymore, Axel wrapped his arms around Roxas' waist and crushed his lips to the pink thin lips in front of him. Roxas received the kiss eagerly. He pursed his lips together as first but as Axel's hand was travelling up and down his little body, he let out a small moan of pleasure, fervently accepting Axel's tongue that travelled inside every crevices of his mouth. Axel felt the blond kissed back and the kiss soon heated up and both the boys could feel that the room was getting steamy.

Lust and hunger could be seen in the pair of cerulean and emerald. Without knowing it, Axel had taken Roxas near the bed and the blond plopped down on the bed with Axel on top of him. Roxas smiled and whispered, "Don't hesitate."

Axel didn't even waste one minute. His hand hastily zipped down Roxas' short pajama pants that were blocking his way. He could feel the hardness of the blond. Roxas didn't merely watch, his hands were put in action too as he stripped the redhead's pants off in record time. "Beat ya," Roxas laughed seductively. With a power that the redhead didn't know the blond had, Roxas shifted the entire position, rolling around, and pinning the redhead down, sitting on the redhead's stomach. They sneaked out of their own shirts leaving Roxas with only pants and Axel naked.

The lithe blond leaned down and put his hands on the redhead's chest. He bit down on Axel's neck and started nibbling and licking. While at the same time, Axel's hands were travelling, finally finding Roxas' hardened member. He started to pump it, earning a yelp and moans from the blond. Axel smirked.

Roxas refused to let Axel win, he sneaked away, at the same time disappointed in the lost of contact as Axel's hand was withdrawn and he took in the redhead's member, licking gently. "Roxas!" the redhead moaned. Axel came as Roxas continued his ministrations and Roxas licked off Axel's cum. After, he reached out and took a tube of what seem like dark colored lubricant from the edge of the bed.

He handed it over to the redhead, "For you."

It was then that Axel noticed what the blond wanted. They shifted their position again, now with Axel on top of Roxas. Axel opened the tube and he was assaulted by the smell of chocolate. "Chocolate?" Axel asked, still panting from their activity just now.

"Hurry and do it," Roxas groaned impatiently.

Axel poured out the lubricant and sprayed it to his fingers. Roxas screamed when he felt two fingers intruded him. He could feel the pain smearing into his body and as a third finger came it and began to stroke him, he had relaxed quite a bit. He moaned and panted. "Axel!" he yelled when Axel touched that certain part inside him.

Axel pulled out his finger and the blond growled but he smiled, knowing that it was soon for him to take in the redhead fully inside of him. Axel positioned himself and he went in when he received a nod from the blond. Roxas could feel the pain but the pain soon became pleasure. Axel went harder at every thrust wanting the blond to scream his name louder. "Axel! I…!" the blond screamed between his pants and he came followed by the redhead a few thrusts later.

Axel pulled out and thumped down beside Roxas on the bed. Both were panting heavily. "It—has been such a long time…" Roxas whispered, curling up to Axel.

The redhead was curious but found himself too lazy to ask. He pulled the comforter above them. He cringed when he looked at his hand. "It's black…"

Roxas chuckled. "The lubricant."

"What's…"

"Didn't I mention that my boyfriend love to have kinky sex with chocolate?"

"This is chocolate?" Axel laughed at the same time feeling a huge stab right at his chest. _No, I couldn't be jealous over this stupid thing._ Axel reminded himself.

"Yeah." Roxas took Axel's hand and began licking it, taking it in and making popping sounds that put Axel in a very difficult position.

"What are you doing to me?" Axel growled.

"Want to have another round?" Roxas purred while still enjoying Axel's fingers, smiling at the sweetness of the chocolate flavor.

Axel rolled and had the blond pinned down beneath him. "Only if you promise to have sex only with me."

"This is what I'm paying you for, you know." Roxas grinned.

"You don't need to pay me for this," the redhead was surprised that he had just refused money.

Roxas chuckled. "We'll see about that."

After that, the first day of Axel's new job was filled with pants and moans of pleasure.

--

In the mean time, the door that led to the mansion opened and stepped in a man. His footsteps echoed throughout the entire mansion but went unnoticed by the two boys who were engrossed in their activity.

--

Aha, Lemon, there. I'm really horrible at that, partly because I have myself to hold me back…


	5. Dangerous Boyfriend

Oooo, so many people are alerting! …without leaving a review. D: Ah well. XD Thank you for reading and reviewing, you guys!

**Chapter 5**

**Dangerous Boyfriend**

The morning after, Axel could feel pain and soar smearing through his whole body. His body ached badly but at the same time, he felt fulfilled. He had counted—and last night made the record of the time he had sex with anybody. Six times and Roxas still got it going—six times of topping and bottoming. Axel smirked at the images. He had never had so much fun before and Roxas had a way of keeping him entertained. He wondered how the blond had so much stamina though. "Must be those chocolates," he mumbled, raking his hair with his hand.

Beside the redhead, the blond slept calmly and peacefully. His breathing was even unlike last night where all Axel could see of Roxas was panting and just seductive smile, engrossed in their 'not so little' activity. The blond shifted, hand resting on the redhead's bare chest and his head curled into Axel's side. Axel took the blond's hand, holding it tightly, rolled to his side, and embraced the blond. He rested his nose on the blond's forehead, gently placing a kiss on Roxas' lidded eye. It was soon that those eyes fluttered open softly. Roxas moaned, "Nnh, Axel?" The blue eyes that Axel had come to like stared up to his emerald. A smile tugged on the blond's face. "Good morning, red."

Axel chuckled. "Morning, yellow."

Roxas purred. "We sounded like some screwed superheroes. Speaking about that…" Roxas cooed with half lidded eyes. "Does superman want to have another go?" he crawled onto Axel, resting on top of the naked body.

"Early in this morning?" Axel laughed. He found it strange that he didn't mind Roxas topping him. He had never been topped before and man, Roxas sure knew how to get him going.

"Yes," Roxas purred, straddling the redhead's growing erection.

A knock on the door accompanied by a fit of fake coughs echoed throughout the room. The sun shone bright in, revealing Roxas in his naked body and Axel beneath him with his lower body covered in the comforter. "I would recommend the two of you to cease your activity," the intruder said in a stern voice hiding the flush with the hair covering half his face.

"We are not about to do anything, right, Axel?" Roxas purred, licking the redhead's lips.

Axel stuttered a little, feeling the pain in his lower region growing. "Yeah, sure," he answered, rolling his eyes.

"Roxas, you will get the benefit of listening to my advice today."

Roxas straightened, still sitting on the redhead's abdomen. "I'm ready to listen," he smiled.

"_He_ is in the room next door for all the night, clearly listening into the noises you are making last night."

Roxas chuckled softly. "He really is?" he got off of the redhead, jumping out off the bed, wincing a bit from the pain that was smearing through his body from his lower back. He nearly fell back down on the bed but Axel held his hand. "Thanks," he smiled, feeling slightly dizzy.

"Finish your problems, Roxas. I think I also need to remind you two to keep your hands off each other," Zexion said calmly, getting out of the enormous room, closing the door softly, leaving the redhead and the blond in the room.

Roxas laughed. "It's funny," he said softly. "Never felt this sore in the morning before."

Axel blushed. "Yeah?" he smirked.

"You can receive your payment from Zexion. Just talk to him about it. He'll know."

At the comment, Axel narrowed his eyes. "Payment?" he repeated the word, feeling very alien. He had forgotten all along that all of those were actually his new job.

"Yeah, of course," Roxas grinned. He walked limply and took the towel that was hanging on the hook near the bed, covering himself with it. Axel looked around, feeling rather icky with his chocolate lube covered body. Roxas noticed and he took off his towel and threw it on Axel, walking away without wearing anything to the bathroom deep inside the bedroom. "I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off if you're _dressed_ like that," he commented cheerfully.

Axel wholly agreed. He would rather Roxas was the one to use the towel instead of him. Now, he had to worry about his hardened lower region as he couldn't keep his eyes off of Roxas' ass. He grumbled and ran a hand through his spiky redhair. "Why do I feel like I'm being topped?" he muttered, loud enough for Roxas to hear.

Roxas giggled. "Aww, Axie. I just topped you once last night. You topped me five times." And the blond disappeared into the bathroom. Axel was contemplated to follow but decided otherwise. He wouldn't want to molest or to be molested under the shower—even though that sounded like a very interesting idea that he wouldn't mind trying out.

--

Roxas emerged from the steamy bathroom soon after. The steam could be seen following his water dripping hair. He dried his head with a small blue towel, closing his eyes. Cerulean eyes opened and he eyed the redhead that was sitting quietly on the bed. "You could use a shower, you know and I also wouldn't mind if you'd want to change the spray," Roxas commented. "Just kidding," he laughed. "I wouldn't treat you like a maid. I love you after all, Axie. I'll tell Zexion to bring some clothes for you and stuffs. He'll be able to ride you back," the blond said while wearing his clothes and Axel ad a hard time of _not_ staring. "You can ask Zexion anything. He's the smartest guy I've ever known," he continued talking. "Just don't overuse him. He's my best friend after all, mmkay?"

"I couldn't understand what you're trying to do."

"You will, when you remember," Roxas said knowingly while walking to the door leading out of the bedroom. "Do me a favor and don't let _him_ see you, okay?"

Axel stood up from where he was sitting and approached the blond, gripping the blond's arm, halting him entirely. "How long are you going to keep me in the dark?"

"I'm _not_ keeping you in the dark, Axel." It was the first time Axel saw that expression of Roxas—a grim, saddened expression, showing that he was about to break but nonetheless trying miserable to force a smile. "_You_ are the one that's keeping yourself in the dark. Please, Axel. Don't run away from all this."

"What the fucking hell are you talking about? I'm _not_ running away from anything."

"You are, Axel. You are. I just—want you to know that…" Roxas' eyes glued to the floor, looking away from the redhead's gaze. "want you to know that I'm disappointed… but… I always and will always love you, Axel." With that, the blond stood on tiptoe and laid a plain, chaste kiss on Axel's lips. He slowly sneaked away afterwards and disappeared from the room.

"What the…?" Axel stood there, dumbfounded.

He didn't like that one bit. It brought pain to his chest in which he had no idea the reason why. It hurt him to see the blond like that and he hated it. It was like he had done something wrong without knowing it—but there was no single trace of memory about anything no matter how much he dig it up from his brain. Either it was because his aching heart or his spinning head or merely because of the pain and the sore feeling that smeared through from his lower back. In addition, he wondered out loud, "Didn't he said that the room was soundproof?"

--

The blond went to search for the lilac haired man in the mansion. It was easy, he knew that Zexion always spent his time reading at the yard, below the shady tree and there he was. Roxas smiled. "Zex," he called out. There was nice wind blowing in the yard. The green leafy tree moved and made beautiful sounds as it made contact with the wind. The grasses spread out as far as the eye could see. Some flowers grew in the grass, struggling to live in the harsh world.

Zexion looked up from his book, eyeing the blond carefully, watching as his best friend approach him. He didn't move one bit, only watching. "You feel better?" Zexion asked.

"Never been better," Roxas stretched but he winced when he felt the pain from his lower back. He would have to take a mental note to not push himself too hard next time—though it didn't really count as _pushing_ himself. He just couldn't stop.

Zexion chuckled lightly. "You'd better be careful with that fragile body of yours. You don't want to shorten your already shortened life."

"Geez, you don't have to remind me," Roxas grinned. "I merely want to enjoy my life to the fullest."

"You've become quite a bit of a liar."

"I know…but it was necessary."

"To make him remember," Zexion added.

"Yes. Zexion… I have one thing to request of you."

"Speak."

"If I ever strayed away or do something wrong, remind me, okay?"

"Isn't that what I always do?"

"Yeah," Roxas sighed and smiled softly. "Thank you, Zexion."

"Friends need not say thank you."

"Thank you," Roxas teased.

"I need to ask for permission to leave today."

"For…him?"

Zexion nodded.

"Of course. Good luck with that bubbly guy. Demyx? I'm sure you two will work out," Roxas laughed.

"I am _not_…"

"You are not in love with him. I understand," Roxas cut in. "He's a nice guy. Give him my regards. Oh, and before you take our leave. Help Axel out with whatever, mmkay?"

"I'll keep in mind to not tell him anything."

"I know I could count on you. Thanks," Roxas turned, walking away from the area.

"Where are you going?"

"You needn't ask, need you, Zexion?"

"_Him._ Come back alive."

"He wouldn't kill me," Roxas commented, chuckling. "My life is like these flowers that grew in the middle of the grass, isn't it? It is forgotten because it is surrounded by all the grass and it would soon die away without anyone knowing it." Zexion watched as the blond disappeared from his sight, wanting to retort the blond's comment but found out that his brain didn't work as cleverly as it was.

--

Roxas took in a deep breath, opening the brown, oak door in front of him. It gave a small squeak as he opened the door slowly, peeking inside nervously. "Good morning," he called out; his voice suddenly became hoarse.

"Good afternoon," came a smooth voice from deep inside the fireplace lit room.

Roxas stepped in nervously. His calm and devilish behavior that he usually kept around Axel was eaten away from the aura that radiated throughout the room. He knew this wouldn't turn out well. Not with _him_ and that voice. "How was your day?" Roxas asked but realized later that he had asked the wrong question. The man that was sitting on the chair with his foots above the desk straightened and stood up. He approached the lithe blond, towering all over him.

"You can take a guess," said the man. Roxas didn't like that tone at all. That tone would only mean that he could get away only after he got several bruises and wounds on his body. He didn't have any choice and he wasn't about to apologize. There was no need to. He saw no wrong in doing what he had done.

Roxas managed a playful chuckle. "Irritable?" he confronted.

The man with silky silver hair took his sheathed sword that was lying on the desk. "It's quite interesting really," the man laughed maniacally, jade eyes glimmering as he laughed. "I never heard you scream like last night before."

"He's just that good," Roxas taunted, smiling innocently.

"I can only challenge myself to make you scream even louder, Roxas."

Roxas took several steps back as the man kept approaching him. Before he knew it, he was already backed up against the wall. Cerulean eyes glared the maniacal jade. The man was unsheathing the sword. The sword shone, reflecting the reflection of the blonds paled face. "Don't," Roxas coughed out but he was not pleading.

"Are you going to beg?"

Roxas swallowed the lump in his throat. "No, I didn't do anything wrong."

"You would learn soon enough that you had done something very wrong, Roxas."

Roxas narrowed his eyes. "You're the…"

"I'm not requesting opinion. This is not a discussion, Roxas," the man hissed, pointing the sword to Roxas' neck, cutting a thin line through that fragile neck, drawing out blood.

"I will _not_ beg," Roxas said sternly.

"I will leave the decision to you. You need punishment, Roxas. I will give you that _punishment_."

"Kadaj…" Roxas whispered, preparing himself for the pain that his body would soon suffer.

--

Oo, do you see the thickness in the air? :D Now that the mysterious boyfriend problem's solved, I've got one more major block that's blocking me. :D What is up with Axel? D:

Quick update, because I love you guys!! I love your supportive review!! It kept me up all day. Even though this is short, I hope you enjoyed it. Please review. XD It would make me all bubbly, hyper, and happy and it would motivate me to keep writing and updating soon. Thank you very much!!

One last note, it seems that chocolates these days are dangerous. Some kinda added stuffs in there that would clog our body system (some protein in the milk or something. Didn't listen to the news so much—but that's the gist.) So, stay away from chocolates for the time being. :D


	6. Dangerous 'Dream?

This chapter is just mere seconds away from _not_ being 'Dangerous'. XD Yeah, it's another dangerous chapter again. Quick short update! O.o Enjoy!

**Chapter 6**

**Dangerous 'Dream'?**

There was a soft sigh that left Zexion's mouth when he walked to Roxas' room to have a word with the redhead—so to speak. He had gone to the redhead mostly because Roxas had requested it but he felt like conversing and somehow, he wanted to try and find out how much the redhead knew about the whole thing. He had a very bad feeling about the whole thing and he didn't like it.

Axel had fully changed back into his attire after he was done with his bath. He felt somehow refreshed even though he still felt a bit sore and exhausted. The fluffy bed that he slept in with Roxas last night was set in the middle of the room and the redhead found it very hard to resist the temptation to just lie down and fall asleep. He knew he couldn't. He had to leave. In addition, he could still catch one of his evening classes if he left early. He didn't want to skip anything.

"I trust that you are well?" Zexion inquired calmly, already stepping in the bedroom.

Axel was slightly surprised that the lilac haired male was already in the room—and he didn't hear any voice at all. "I'm pretty good," Axel answered easily. "How are you?"

"I do have to say that I don't like all of this. Be aware, Axel."

"What?" Axel frowned. "Could you all stop talking so weird?"

"You should try and figure this all out rather than blaming us for keeping it from you. Roxas is suffering because of you and also…" Zexion muttered. "And also Demyx," he finished, unheard by the redhead.

"Suffering? What?"

Zexion stared eye to eye with the redhead. He realized that there was no point in continuing the conversation any further. Therefore, he decided to change the topic. "What would you need me to do?" Zexion continued as he noticed Axel's confused expression. "Roxas requested me to help you out."

"Well, you can start by telling me all you know that I don't. That would _help_ a lot," Axel replied.

"I am not here for that kind of assistance."

"Well, tell me where Roxas had gone off to, then," Axel tried again, feeling that he should really seek out what happened instead of going to his evening class. He didn't like what he was feeling one bit. Something bad was going to happen—something he felt very familiar with. He loathed the emotions. It was a mixture of sadness, regret, lost, and grief. In addition, he hated it even more that he felt very familiar with it—as if it had happened frequently.

"He is currently facing _him_."

"Who the hell is _he_?"

"His boyfriend," Zexion answered simply.

"I know that and…"

"You shouldn't know anymore than that."

"Fine, I will figure this out," Axel huffed.

"Roxas would be happy to hear that. Do you want to attend other business rather than being here?" Zexion paused. "Actually, no… please proceed to the room right next to this. Roxas and _he_ will be there. Go immediately."

"What?"

"Roxas' life is coming to a close with every delay."

Axel shook his head in disbelieve, never able to figure out what Zexion meant. He rushed out of the room and turned sideways to get through the hallways. After minutes of running, he finally found a door that would definitely lead to another room. He panted, wondering why the space of one room to another was very far away. When he opened the door, he cringed.

Inside, there was a silver head man with Roxas. Roxas was bleeding badly, holding his stomach with his clothes torn apart. His abdomen was dripping blood and the silver head man was holding a crimson sheathed blade. The blond looked horrible—the lower part of his body wasn't even covered anymore. "You bastard, what are you doing?!" Axel shouted, rushing forward to confront the man.

"You must be Axel," Kadaj commented, followed by his maniacal laugh later.

"Axel!" Roxas grabbed Axel's arm before the redhead could start a fight with Kadaj. "Stop it, Kadaj," the blond hissed.

"Let go, Roxas!" Axel protested.

Roxas struggled, the more he struggled, the more his blood pooled on the floor. Kadaj raised his sword about to assault the redhead. When he was launching forward, Roxas stepped in front of Axel and shielded the redhead. The blade stabbed right through Roxas' heart and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Kadaj smirked at his success, watching Axel's reaction carefully. Axel stood there, observing. His brain froze completely as he watched the blond slowly fell down on the floor with together with the sharp blade, painted in crimson. The redhead didn't feel anything but tears suddenly formed in his eyes and it began dripping down his cheek.

Axel knelt beside the dying blond, holding Roxas up carefully in his embrace, as if fearing that the blond would turn into ashes and disappear merely because of his touch. "What the…" he paused, couldn't registering everything that was happening. "_I can't believe I failed to save you, __**again**__."_

"Axel…" Roxas smiled weakly.

"I don't understand…" Axel frowned. His tears stopped.

"There are a lot of things that you don't understand right now—but…" the blond paused, coughing out blood. "You will, soon enough. Don't forget, got it memorized?" he continued weakly, shakily.

"You can't die," the words just came out from the redhead's mouth.

"This is meant to happen, Axel… I love y…" the blond stopped altogether, lying limply in the redhead's embrace…not moving, not breathing. His eyes were closed and Axel knew that he couldn't see the bright cerulean eyes that belonged to the blond anymore.

"Roxas…" he whispered shakily.

"And now that everything's strayed this path, it is time for you to join him," Kadaj said with a sadistic smirk, leaning down to take his blade. Axel froze. Even though he wanted to fight back, he found himself paralyzed and the reason was definitely _not_ because of fear. He merely couldn't move his own body. Soon, he could feel pain as Kadaj's blade stroke right through his heart, the same place that Kadaj had wounded Roxas. Before Axel could figure out anything, everything was enshrouded in darkness—and a loud thud echoed throughout the room soon followed by the deafening silence.

--

"Axel, Axel, wake up."

"Nggghh, Roxas…"

"Axel, I said, wake up!"

"What?" Emerald eyes fluttered open slowly, taking in everything that came into sight. Axel sat up, rubbing his eyes, feeling the pain and the soreness in his body. "Everything…was a dream?" he mumbled hesitantly.

"What was a dream?"

"Larx? What are you doing here?"

"Duh, to wake you up, Axel. You've been sleeping like a log. You should really be doing your job, you know," the blonde woman with hair standing up that looked like two cockroach's antenna complaint, folding her arms to her chest. "So, what was the dream that you're talking about?" Larxene inquired again.

"Dream?" Axel began asking himself. "Did I dream?"

"Dude, you were screaming and groaning something and somewhat called 'Roxas'. I never see someone called and moaned out like that in a dream before. Aww, Axel is having a wet dream," Larxene teased in a singsong.

Axel growled. "I'm completely fine, okay, Larx? Now shut up and leave me alone."

"No can do, sweetie. Every single one of the girls is waiting for you outside. Now go entertain them unless you want to lose your job."

Axel growled again. "Fine," he walked away from the small closet room where he had dozed off and walked into the bar, at the same time wondering what a 'Roxas' was and whether or not he really had dreamt. Everything was blurry and weird and he didn't want to get a headache while he had to work. Thus, he decided to ignore it. It was another night of being a bartender in the bar.

--

Girls were swooning over the redheaded bartender that was performing miraculously in the bar. The redhead made and served the drinks that the girls had ordered and they would give him money. When he put on more of his ability into work and try to flirt with the girls, they would give him more money. He knew it was a dirty job but it was the best paying job in the town and he didn't need to work very hard because of his good looks. The only downside of it was that he didn't have the time to sleep because he had to work until morning and he had morning classes. In fact, it had already been two whole days since he had sleep and the last time he dozed off was merely for an hour. He began assuming that all the weird feelings he had after waking up was really because he was too tired—though it was rather peculiar to him that he felt like he had forgotten something really important. In addition, the word 'Roxas' really irked him.

After a long night of working in the bar, Axel was finally allowed to go home. He stretched until he could hear his bone crack and he yawned widely, feeling tired as hell. It was already morning again and the sun was blazing, shining to his face. He cringed when he was exposed fully to the sun even though he liked the warmth he received from the huge chunk of temperature shining up above. His vision became blurred as he stared directly to the sun and when he looked elsewhere, he saw a tinge of blond in front of him. "Larxene?" he muttered. "Aren't you supposed to be home?"

"Who's Larxene, Axel?" the voice sounded strangely familiar to Axel.

"Who are you?" Axel replied; his vision was finally clearing and he saw a short blond in front of him, smiling sweetly.

"I can't believe you already forgot and mostly, I can't believe that you are already cheating on me," the blond chuckled softly. "Nice to see you, Axie."

"Who the hell are you?" the redhead asked again. The autumn wind started to blow violently, dismissing the silence between the lithe blond and the redhead. Roxas shoved his hands into his baggy pants, took a few steps forward to Axel, taking his hands out, putting it on the Axel's shoulder, and standing on tiptoe to land a kiss on the perplexed redhead. There were so many questions that needed answers…

--

Yeah, that's chapter 6. XD Short as ever! XD even shorter than before. O.o I know this is a poor update but that's all that I can say to this chapter. Please tell me if you had become more interested in the story or you merely got bored as this drag on? This story will _finish_ or _continue_ depending on your respond. :D Thank you! Anyway, I'm quite happy that I can update this before my birthday (nuuuu, I'm getting old… Big 1-8.. :O) even though it's short. :D I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway! Thank you!!


	7. Back to the Beginning

Not dangerous anymore! Enjoy!

**Chapter 7**

**Back to the Beginning**

The kiss was brief but filled with emotion. The weird thing was that the redhead could somehow sense those emotions that the blond emit through the kiss that was suddenly planted on his lips. Axel frowned even harder, not having a fun time at all with some stranger suddenly kissing him, square on the lips. Moreover, it was a male, no less—the same gender as he. "What do you want?"

"Axie," Roxas smiled. He took in a deep breath and he suddenly spanked Axel on the head. "I can't believe you forgot! _**Again!**_I thought I told you to remember! What the hell is wrong with your brain?!" he exclaimed, pouting.

"Ouch! That hurts, blondie!" Axel retorted; his stomach filled with rage. "What did I do?"

"It's _all_ that you do, Axel! I can't stand this anymore! Could you for _once_ remember?!"

"Remember _what?!_ I don't even know you!"

"Yeah, sure," Roxas said less excitedly. "Listen, I don't know how much time I've got left… I really don't, Axel. I can't do anything if you choose to run away…" he took in a deep breath. "I shouldn't have bothered to begin with…"

"You don't make any sense."

"I never make any sense," Roxas chuckled. "You always say that whenever I meet you after my _death_."

"What death?"

"You really should have your brain checked, Axel," Roxas stated unhappily. "Or maybe, I'd do you a favor and help you remember." There was a devilish smirk on the blond's face. Axel could feel that something awkward was about to happen but his body refused to move.

Roxas approached the redhead slowly. He reached out, cupping Axel's cheek, caressing it lovingly. Axel gulped, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. Soon, he found himself backed against the alleyway wall. The blond straddled the redhead; he smiled when he earned a growl from Axel. "What the hell are you doing?" the redhead groaned.

"Molesting you," Roxas answered innocently with a sweet voice and an angelic smile.

"In the alleyway?"

"Yes," Roxas purred. "Do you want to go anywhere?"

Axel took a deep, shaky breath. Needless to say, he was aroused by the blond being so close to him even though he was _not_ gay. The blond kept approaching and it was only millimeters apart before their lips locked again. Axel shoved Roxas right on time. "Enough with your jokes," Axel frowned.

"Axel?" Roxas whispered. He felt upset yet at the same time baffled that Axel was denying his approach.

"I don't even _know_ you," Axel hissed, walking away, leaving the blond.

Roxas wanted to chase but he decided not to. The blond stood there, watching as Axel's figure disappeared. "So now…he's being hard to get?" Roxas whispered silently in a grim tone, not liking the whole situation at all.

--

It was a bright day, but not very sunny in Roxas' eyes. He released a long and deep sigh, sitting on the stairs leading to town square. There was a huge fountain of water in the middle of the area and there were children playing around, chasing each other, playing tag happily. Roxas could only think of so many ways to make Axel remember him. Now, he was out of clue—he was out of everything. He didn't have any trick left. All he wanted was for Axel to memorize him. Why was it so hard? In addition, there was only a short amount of time left before everything fell into pieces. He wished that Zexion would find a way out for him. However, he knew that he had better do something instead of relying on others. He knew Zexion was trying to help and he appreciated it.

Now, he was back to the beginning again where everything started. After he had worked so hard for countless times, it turned out that it all accumulated to nothing. It was all in vain. He hated everything, but he wasn't about to give up. No, there had got to be a way out of all this—a way out of Axel's wish. A way out of everything—before time runs out. He had to try a different approach.

--

Zexion stepped into the small hut that was standing in the middle of the forest. The forest was thick and there were so many greens—definitely not a sight that could be seen in the town. It had taken him hours to get there, but he was sure that it was worth it. After all, meeting Demyx wasn't so bad—and while he was at that, he could also formulate a way to help Roxas and Axel out.

Hesitantly, he knocked on the door. It was his first time being there. He kept on a stern and emotionless face. "Coming!" came a sound from inside the hut and soon, the door opened. Zexion was graced by the cheerful expression of a Mohawk blond.

"Good morning," Zexion said, giving proper greeting.

"Zexy!" The blond grinned excitedly. "Come in. I'm brewing tea. I have a feeling all day that you are coming," he exclaimed, walking inside the hut, leaving Zexion.

The lilac haired male stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, wondering how Demyx had gotten that feeling. Did he give anything out? No, he was sure that he always maintained an emotionless expression at anytime. He recomposed himself and step inside the small hut made of wood, closing the door behind him slowly.

He watched as Demyx was in the kitchen, taking care of the tree. He decided to sit down on the wooden made seat. The nice soothing sound of water could be heard echoing inside the small hut. The Mohawk blond soon came back, holding a tray which was set with two teacups and a pot of tea. He set them down on the round table and he began pouring out the tea into the teacup. "I knew you'd come," Demyx smiled.

"How do you know?"

"The water tells me and also the wind and the nature."

Zexion tried to register the information into his brain. "You can communicate with them?"

"Of course! I wouldn't live in the middle of the jungle for no reason!" the blond replied happily, sitting down in front of the lilac haired male.

Zexion was slightly amused, he smiled. However, he was soon back to his same emotionless face again. "I come here to ask you a favor, Demyx."

Demyx tilted his head to the side. "Sure, I'll try my best to help!"

"I trust you still remember about Roxas and his problem?"

"Yeah—and you come here to…"

"He desperately needs help even though he didn't say anything. He is going nowhere and time is running short for him."

There was silence enshrouding the two. Demyx finally smiled. "You've come to the right person. I'll help you out. However, when this is all over, I would like to request you to go out with me," he winked and smiled softly, standing up, and bowing his head deeply.

Zexion blushed. "Go out?" he repeated the word uncertainly.

"I want a friend to hang out with me. I hope you wouldn't mind."

"I suppose it will be alright."

"That's great!" Demyx beamed and squealed excitedly. "I'm sure I can get Roxas out of all this. The answer is for Axel to remember, right? I'm sure the soothing sound of the calm 'water' would be able to bring his memories back. There is one thing that I want to ask."

"Yes?"

"Why doesn't Roxas simply tell Axel everything?"

"He couldn't. That would _end_ everything. Then, his effort would be all in vain."

Demyx stood, watching Zexion's expression. He put a hand on Zexion's shoulder, giving him encouragement and a calming smile.

--

Axel sat in his room. He was grateful that Xemnas was going to sleep over at a friend's house that night and that the silver head man wouldn't be back for the whole day. He could use the quite and alone time. Besides, he would need to cram all night, doing his essay, homework, and studying for his test. He was seriously not getting enough sleep and he had already called in sick for his job in the bar. That would also mean that he wouldn't be receiving any payment for the day. He didn't want that, but he had no other choice. He was not feeling well. What with all the stress and the confusion. HE couldn't forget about the blond that assaulted him this morning. Why would somebody suddenly come up and molest him? Besides, wasn't he supposed to be the one that was _doing_ the _molesting?_ That was awkward.

When the redhead was memorizing history, the doorbell suddenly rang. He grumbled. "Xemnas wasn't supposed to be back. Great, now I forgot everything," he groaned, standing up and decided to go and open the door. His emerald eyes narrowed when he opened the door, seeing the blond standing right in front of him. He was bothered by the sudden excitement that was coursing through his body as well. Deciding to ignore it, he was about to slam his door shut. However, Roxas' hand managed to block the door. He hissed in pain when the door slammed to his hand. "What..?" Axel was definitely not expecting that. He felt guilt running to his heart.

"I'm really sorry about this morning, Axel. That was a bad introduction and…and…" Roxas' eyes were glued on the floor. His eyes were stinging, mostly because of the pain in his heart that Axel had forgotten him for 'who knows how many time' and primarily because his hand was badly injured. He withdrew his hand from the door slowly, biting his lower lips, hoping that he could transfer a little of the pain from his hand.

"Are you okay?" Axel asked worriedly.

Roxas wanted to scream but he managed to keep a smiling face even though it was obvious that his expression was horribly forced. "I'm alright," he said shakily.

"Let me take a look at your hand," Axel reached out, pulling the door open.

Roxas backed away, retracting his hand. "It will be alright. All I wanted to ask is for your forgiveness. If I acquire it, I would be able to go away in peace."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't say that I was angry, right? I was confused," Axel tried to reason, feeling that everything was his fault and that the one that should be apologizing was him.

"Are you sure?" Roxas asked timidly.

"Yes, now, your hand needs treatment."

Roxas was hesitant but he slowly stepped closer to Axel, going into the redhead's small apartment. After the blond was inside, Axel closed the door slowly and ran into the bathroom, taking out the first aid kit. "Come here," he said, leading Roxas into his bedroom. Roxas followed slowly, still biting his lower lips. "Sit down," the redhead said and Roxas obeyed, sitting down on the red covered bed.

Axel sat down behind Roxas shortly after. Gently, he took the lithe blond's hand and began applying medicine on it. Roxas hissed in pain, holding his tears from coming out. "I'm sorry that I slammed the door," Axel said softly.

Roxas chuckled. "I was the one who put my hand there. Stupid move, huh?"

"Very," Axel replied.

"You wouldn't have let me in if I didn't do that," Roxas pouted, narrowing his eyes. "You asshole."

"What?"

"I said, you _asshole_," Roxas stuck his tongue out cutely. "I am so tired, Axel… I'm so tired of this game."

"What game?" Axel frowned again. Why was the blond being very weird? And come to think of it, how did he know the redhead's name while Axel didn't even have a single clue or memories about the blond?

"I wish I could quit…but apparently, that's not an option for me…Axel…" Roxas whispered silently. His cerulean eyes bored into the emerald in front of him.

Axel blushed slightly, feeling very uncomfortable around the blond suddenly. He could only wonder why his heart was beating at an abnormal rate. The blond was very close to him. His lips were right in front of his eyes—those pink, thin lips. He felt like he already knew the blond for so long. "Roxas…" he muttered out unconsciously.

Roxas smiled. "You remembered my name."

Axel's breath hitched slightly. Roxas blushed deeply, staring at the redhead. Ignoring the pain in his hand and the messy, unfinished bandaging that Axel applied, Roxas sneaked his arm around the redhead's neck, circling around it. It was only seconds later that Axel had finally decided to close the space between their lips. _Is this right? I don't even know him…_

Roxas licked and kissed the redhead passionately, trying to get Axel to return the same affection to him. It was until then that Axel finally submitted and began heating up their kisses, lip locking until they became breathless. _I wish I had more time. You are also trying hard, right, Axel?_ _To get out of all this?..._

--

Haha! Birthday, birthday, it's my birthday, lalala. XD I'm glad that I'm able to update even though it is short as always. Please gift me a lovely present. Simply review. XD then, my birthday won't be as lousy as my previous birthdays. Ahhh, I'm getting old. Nuuuu… Anyway, please review, mmkay? Thank you very much for those who review! Thank you! Also, I want this to be considered a gift to Lifes.Lover (even though it's a lousy gift...) because her birthday's coming too! Wish her a happy birthday! She's awesome. XD Thank you for everything, Amelia! I'll do my best to cheer up your birthday!

Also, thank you, thank you, for you who wished me a happy birthday. Thank you cookies-n'-milk-yo for brightening up my day and making me smile A LOT. Thank you reeby 10 for writing me such a lovely chapter. I'm very happy. Thank you very much! Of course, I also appreciate your reviews! thank you everyone! XD this will become a long list of thank you if I don't stop. :D

It's getting pretty late and this story's getting weird and random. So, I hope you will await the next chapter!


	8. Building up the Feelings

Geh, this reached chapter 8 already? Haha. XD Thank you so much for your lovely reviews and birthday wishes! It makes me so happy. Even though I'm not feeling well, I'd go the heck with it and update anyway. Enjoy! The chain of dangerousness had been broken. :P

**Chapter 8**

**Building up the Feelings**

"Axel…" Roxas muttered breathlessly, finally breaking the kiss. He panted and then leveled his breathe, breathing slowly and deeply. His cerulean eyes bore into the emerald eyes that were so close in front of him. Axel was also panting, finding the kiss remarkable. He had never kissed like that before and he couldn't deny the strange familiar feelings that continued to build up inside his body. It was as if he didn't own that body anymore. The blond in front of him looked at him with a pleading expression, as if asking for something that the blond knew would never come true. Axel came to wonder why such thinking flowed into his brain.

"Roxas, who…are you?" Axel muttered silently.

Roxas' cerulean eyes welled up with tears. A single tear finally decided to drip down his cheek. He smiled softly. There was not even a single hint that he was going to blame anything on Axel—which Axel would expect out of the blond. "It hurts…you know…" he whispered silently. Pulling away from the redhead, eyes glued to the bed, not daring to stare into Axel's emerald eyes, fearing that more tears would threaten to flow. "It hurts…more than anything."

"What are you talking about?" Axel asked worriedly, reaching out to cup the blond's cheek, wiping off the tear that was flowing down the blond's pale face.

"It hurts to die… it hurts to die over and over again. It hurts so much…" he muttered shakily at the same time shaking his head softly. He pulled away from the redhead's hand, avoiding the contact. "But…you know, Axel?" he asked softly. He raised his face, finally eyeing the redhead. "Do you know what hurts the most?"

"I…" Axel was rendered speechless. He did not have a single clue as to what to say. He didn't even know what was going on.

"Seeing you forgetting me over and over again…having to tell you my name and ask if you remembered…having to wait for you to remember and… and coming back to the same situation over and over again. Why? Why Axel?" Tears kept flowing down. "Why does it hurt? Why do you think it hurts?" he asked.

"I don't…"

Roxas cut off. "You always answer 'I don't know'. Life seems to be going really easy for you, Axel. You don't know why…you don't know anything and—I can't tell you anything." Roxas shook his head. "I hate you…" he muttered. He took in a deep breath. "I'm…I'm sorry… I don't know what I was saying. Excuse me," Roxas avoided the redhead's eyes, stood up, and walked away out of the room. However, before he could step out, he was stopped by a hand gripping his wrist—the touch that he was so familiar with.

"Roxas, wait!" Axel exclaimed. He didn't know why he was halting the blond. He didn't even know what he should say. All he knew was that he shouldn't let the blond go—that he couldn't lose him again. But why?

"I don't wanna force you. I can't come up with anything anymore. I give up, Axel… I give up in this game… my time is coming close anyway."

"You said that quitting is _not_ an option for you!" the redhead countered.

"Why do you care?" the blond retaliated.

"I…"

"You don't know, Axel. The answer is that you don't know." Roxas released his wrist from Axel's loosened grip. He looked at Axel one last time and decided to get away from there. Axel felt hurt. He felt like his heart was torn into pieces but he couldn't understand why. There was no reason for him to be feeling like this. He was not forgetting anything, right?

--

Roxas sat on the grassy fields of the mansion, below the shady tree. He had had enough of crying and his tears had dried off. He just sat there silently, feeling the gentle breeze blowing against his body. He hugged his knees together as if his life was depended upon them. He looked up to the bright sky that reflected the same color of his eyes.

"_You know what, Roxas? I love the sky. Do you know why?"_

_Roxas tilted his head to the side. He seemed to be thinking for a while but found no answer. He eyed the redheaded man that was dressed in black tight shirts and pants in front of him. "I don't know…because it's beautiful?" he took a guess._

"_Well, partly yes," the redhead chuckled. "But…the reason is that because the sky depicted the color of your amazing eyes. It makes me believe that I could do everything—that I could overcome everything—even all this… by just staring into your amazing blue eyes."_

Roxas laughed bitterly. "Amazing blue eyes…" he muttered. "He must have forgotten all that. This is all my fault," the blond sighed, hiding his head between his knees.

He yelped when he felt a hand was suddenly place on top of his head. "May I inquire how it all became your fault?" Zexion asked, slowly sitting down beside the blond.

"You know what happened, Zexion—because of me… we have to go through all of this…trapped in all of this," Roxas whispered.

"None of it is your fault. We have to find a way out of this."

"The only way out of this was for me to disappear—everything would go back to normal if that happens. My time is running short, right?" Roxas smiled lightly.

"We came to assume that based on groundless theories. We didn't know for sure. I shouldn't have brought that up. It is affecting you and causing you to be skeptical."

"Zexion…"

"I have sought help from Demyx. All of this takes time, Roxas. Don't give up. I'd rather you be alive. Isn't that also what he wished for?"

"I know…I could never forget."

"Good," Zexion smiled.

"Thank you, Zexion. I am really grateful that I came to know a friend such as you." Roxas leaned forward to hug the lilac haired male.

"You are welcome." Zexion hugged back.

--

The lovely afternoon turned out to be not so lovely after all when the rain came pouring down. At that time, the bar should be crowded with customers. More customers meant more tips for Axel which equaled to him earning more money. He took a deep breath and released a huge sigh, drinking his self-made martini, dressed in black and white bartender attire. His other colleagues were not coming because of the rain and he ended up having to take care of the whole bar himself because the owner had apparently entrusted him with it. He started to wonder why it had suddenly rain when the weather forecast for the day had said that it would be sunny all day. He came to a conclusion that you could never really trust the weather forecast fully.

He groaned as he remembered that he had forgotten to bring along some studying material to read. There were so many homework and tests that he felt very overwhelmed. However, there was no way that he could study considering his situation. His mind always swayed to Roxas, the very peculiar blond. He wanted to know why he was thinking so much about him. He wanted answers but apparently, asking himself didn't do any good.

The sounds of the dripping rain could be heard coming from outside and the sound became harder as time passed by. The rain almost sounded as if it was weeping. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of the entrance leading into the bar. The person, who was wearing a black hooded cloak that was covering his face, stepped in. Water soon pooled around him on the floor.

"Welcome," Axel greeted.

Roxas took off his hoodie and began shaking his wet head. "I'm soaked," he pouted happily.

"You…?" Axel felt confused but at the same time amused. He couldn't help but feel happy that he saw the blond again. He thought that he would never see him again.

"Aww, aren't you happy to see me, Axel?" Roxas pouted again, grinning excitedly.

"Well...yeah…" the redhead answered uncertainly.

"Gee, you should at least _show_ the excitement on your face. Zexion is already cold enough even after I've gotten him to smile a little. I don't need you turning cold too," the blond commented. He stripped himself off the black cloak, throwing it somewhere on the floor. Axel was going to have to clean and mop the floor later, but the redhead didn't seem to care.

Axel grinned. "I thought you said you give up," he teased.

"I'm not about to give up yet until I jog that brain of yours," Roxas narrowed his eyes. "Have you gotten any idea yet?" he asked excitedly.

"No." Axel shrugged.

"Hmmm, that's not good," Roxas sighed in disappointment, biting his lower lips. His body was still wet from the rain and his hair was damped.

It was awkward that Axel found himself in a very strange position. His heart was beating fast and he couldn't help the lump from forming in his throat. He gulped, watching the lithe blond's soaked body.

Roxas sneezed out of the cold. "I think I would need to change my clothes. Do you have any dry attire?"

"Yeah, it's in the backroom," Axel pointed to the direction of the small room in the bar.

Roxas smirked. Without taking any step that Axel had hoped he would, the blond stripped off his upper clothes, leaving his upper body naked and he tossed the shirt away somewhere. "It's kinda cold in here," the blond laughed, giggling watching Axel's expression.

Axel went wide eyed, wondering why he got so worked up over seeing the blond's half naked body. He couldn't be aroused…he was not even gay. Though—he began to doubt it. "Well, why are you stripping off here then?" Axel frowned, countering Roxas' comment.

Roxas approached the redhead. "Why? It's…" he trailed off, leaning in closer to Axel's ear. "to…see your expression," he purred. "It was so cute," he giggled. Roxas then began to jump on the counter and circled his arms around Axel's neck. "Do you want to kiss me?" he whispered seductively. "Or do you want me to kiss you?"

"Both," Axel growled out of frustration.

Without further ado, the two crushed their lips to each other, nibbling and getting a taste out of each other. Roxas parted his lips to give access to Axel's tongue. Letting the intruder slipped into his mouth, travelling every inch of it. He shivered slightly out of the pleasure of excitement and he moaned and smiled into the kiss when he heard Axel's growl.

Axel pulled away soon after and continued to travel down Roxas' jaw and to his neck. He kept the blond entertained by giving hot trailing kisses everywhere. He felt like he knew which buttons to push—which part would make Roxas moaned the most, and what he could do to give Roxas all the pleasure. He was familiar with all of it and he didn't bother to wonder why this time. "Take me," Roxas whispered.

Axel pulled away, earning a loud growl from the blond, disappointed over the lost of contact. "Here?"

"Yeah," Roxas purred, trying to make the redhead get back to action again by licking the redhead's ears.

"On…the cold wooden floor?" Axel narrowed his eyes.

Roxas finally pulled away with a _plop_ sound. He chuckled. "Way to kill the mood, Axel," he laughed.

Axel grinned. "You're the one getting distracted very easily."

"But you've got a point there. I sure don't want to make love on the cold wooden floor. I had experienced how crazy we can get when we're getting too excited."

"Had experienced?" Axel frowned.

"You've apparently forgotten," Roxas smiled seductively. "You might be a superman but I'm not, you know. I'll be very sore in the morning even though I'm good at withholding pain."

There was an awkward silence that ensued. "You would need the dry shirt. I'll go get it for you," the redhead offered.

"Wait," Roxas said with a pleading voice.

"I'll be right back. You'll catch a cold," the redhead stated worriedly.

"Don't go, Axel," the blond whispered.

"What?"

"Don't go…" Roxas pleaded, jumping down from the bar counter. "Hug me," he tugged on the redhead's shirt timidly.

"Hmm?" Axel was dumbfounded for a minute but he complied. He gave the blond a hug, transferring his warmth over the small body. Roxas rested his head on the redhead chest, inhaling the scent.

"Axel…I will never give up…because I love you," the blond whispered, smiling contently.

"Roxas…" Axel could feel his breath hitched yet again. He wanted to return the words yet at the same time, he felt like he didn't have a strong enough feeling to relay it. Who was the blond? He didn't even know. It was all messed up like pieces of puzzles that weren't yet put together. Would the pieces eventually be arranged together? When?

--

So, this is short as ever again. Eh… this is getting emotional.. I think this should have some of your questions answered and I don't think I stirred up more question? Some of you guessed it right! XD :D Also… eheh. I think this story had strayed too far away from its title. I'll try to make more connections to the title… if I can. XD It's almost three AM over here… O.o… and I haven't sleep yet… I can't sleep!! ah, I'm going to become a zombie by tomorrow morning. XD Adios! Please leave a review! Thank you!


	9. Pouring Rain

Okay, this has been beta-ed by . Go thank her! XD and also, go read Cherry Lips, the link should be in my profile. Remember to leave a review for her. Part of this is Zemyx. Enjoy!

**Chapter 9**

**Pouring Rain**

Outside the bar, the rain was pouring endlessly. Drops after drops of water kept falling down from the sky even though it shouldn't be raining during this time. If one were to look just look several miles away from the bar, they would find the conditions as sunny as ever. The only area that was raining was the bar. Up on the roof of the residence next to the bar sat a blonde Mohawk teen. He seemed to be enjoying watching the rain as he had stayed there since Roxas went inside to meet Axel. The sound of the dripping water touching the roof and the cold ground soothed him. If he knew earlier that causing rain would be so nice, he would have done it more often in the town.

Demyx was helping Roxas as Zexion had requested. Since he could control water, Roxas had decided earlier to ask him to make the day rain. However, Demyx could only do it in a relatively small area. Thus, if anyone even noticed that it was only raining near the bar, he would have to immediately cease the rain. Fortunately, no one seemed to have noticed yet. Zexion helped with holding Axel's colleague from going to work by putting on illusions that make it seemed like it was raining really hard. Zexion and Demyx were gifted with unusual talents because they once served under a master of magic.

"Success," Demyx was startled by Zexion's voice. He jumped up from where he was sitting, alert and tense, but he soon smiled when he noticed that it was Zexion. The lilac haired teen came closer to Demyx, carefully stepping through so as not to fall down the steep roof and making as little sound as possible.

"Oh, I suppose that means you're done with the illusions," the blond smiled.

"Indeed," Zexion answered shortly. When he was one step away from Demyx, he suddenly lost his balance. If it were not for Demyx's quick reaction, Zexion would have fall down the two storey residence. Demyx sneaked his arm around the lilac haired teen's waist tightly in order to hold his weight. Zexion's hands were rested on the blond's chest as Demyx struggled to balance both of them.

"Are you alright, Zexion?" Demyx asked softly, worry apparent in his voice.

Zexion blushed slightly but it went unnoticed by his bangs covering half his face. His attention was glued to the roof as he was trying to avoid eye contact with the blond hugging him so close. It was highly unusual for him to avoid eye contact with someone whom he was talking to and he found it very awkward, but he decided and reasoned that it was a special case. "I suppose," he was glad that at least his voice didn't betray him. Why was he feeling very nervous in front of Demyx? When Roxas hugged him and showed affection, he felt warm but never felt his heart beating so peculiarly fast. It almost felt like his heart would jump out of its place anytime soon if he failed to calm it down. "It's been so long since I made use of my ability. Perhaps that's why I feel a little lightheaded. I will be alright," he answered, trying to push Demyx away to further emphasize his point.

However, it seemed Demyx was unwilling to let go as his grip was tightening around the lilac haired teen's waist. His other hand even reached to grab Zexion's wrist, preventing the smaller teen of getting away. Demyx put on a small innocent grin as if everything he'd done was normal but his face soon went grim with worry again. "Are you really sure you'll be alright? I don't want you to lose your balance again when I am not aware of it."

Zexion's blush deepened and for once, he used a demanding tone. "I am alright. Now, release me." To tell the truth, Zexion felt slightly fond of the situation. In the cold weather, hugged by Demyx—he loved the warmth. However, it turned out that he was not thinking clearly as he muttered out those words. Or perhaps, he was just embarrassed and didn't want to look foolish in front of the blond.

"You…" Demyx trailed off, trying to come up with a smart reply that would leave Zexion at a loss for words. Then, he put on a smile. "You don't seem to be struggling off of me."

If it were possible, Zexion's blush deepened even more. "It was…" the teen stopped and he released a soft sigh as his brain came up with an explanation. "I do not have the strength to do so as I am still lightheaded."

"Well then, all the more reason to hold you like this, isn't it?" Demyx grinned.

"That is not a reason at all, Demyx."

"You could lose your balance again."

Zexion released a soft sigh. "Don't bring it back, Demyx."

Demyx shrugged. He knew what Zexion was talking about but he pretended that he had no idea. "Bring what back?" he asked.

Zexion finally relaxed into the embrace. He rested his head to Demyx's chest while at the same time listening to Demyx's heartbeat, which was noticeably faster. "Didn't we say? Didn't we already promise each other?"

"I didn't agree with your request that time, Zexion. I didn't promise anything."

"You nodded. You said that you will abide by my request—that we will pretend that we are strangers the next time we meet."

"I'm not good at pretending," Demyx whispered silently. He buried his nose into Zexion's silky hair, inhaling the scent he had long missed.

"You should start practicing, Demyx."

"Didn't I already put on a good act when you visited my place?"

"Frankly, I was quite surprised."

There was silence between them with the rain acting as their background theme. They were carried away—loving the feeling of being close by each other even though they knew they shouldn't be doing so. "I didn't know why…you threw out that request."

Zexion was silent, not answering.

"Zexion…" Demyx released a soft sigh. He released his embrace and waited until Zexion took a step away from him. Soon the rain spread to the whole area.

"You should not expand the area of your abilities, you will get exhausted," Zexion commented, looking to the darkened sky.

"This is not me," Demyx laughed, happy that the lilac haired teen was at least worried about him. "The sky is weeping," he said softly as the rain began pouring down on them. The blond's Mohawk hair went out of shape, as it was damped by water. Demyx eyed Zexion with his gentlest expression. He reached out and put Zexion's bangs behind the teen's ear. "It feels for both of us…and also Axel and Roxas."

"Dem…" Zexion shook his head, pushing the blond away and taking another step backwards. "I…" He was taken by surprise when Demyx suddenly gripped his wrist and pulled him closer, closing the distance between their lips. It was a loving and tender kiss—one that had been forgotten for so long—one that they had both longed for deep down in their hearts. There were no movements. Only lips meeting lips. Soon, they were separated as Zexion pushed away.

Demyx was heartbroken but he decided to cover it up, not wanting the air to become even heavier. He grinned widely. "I'll be waiting until the day Axel recovers his memory. You promised!"

"Demyx…"

"You promised!" Demyx exclaimed excitedly. "Just one day!"

"Alright," Zexion smiled, satisfied by the comeback of the usual hyper Demyx. "However, you did break your promise to me. I might have to reconsider sometime," he teased.

"What?? Nu… don't reconsider. I am really sorry about that… but—but…" the blond pleaded hopelessly.

Zexion chuckled.

"You're just kidding?"

"It should have been obvious," Zexion claimed with his same emotionless expression.

Demyx laughed. "You must have been infected by Roxas. I never knew that you would tease me."

"Well, it has been a long time."

"Roxas and Axel must have both been struggling."

Zexion nodded, agreeing. "I hope everything turns out alright for them."

"It will be alright!" Demyx beamed, sending his optimistic aura. "I'm sure!"

"Yeah," the lilac haired teen agreed with a small smile gracing his face.

--

Roxas loved being hugged. He loved being able to be close to the redhead. The redhead felt the same. He hoped that the rain would fall endlessly just so that Roxas wouldn't go. However, the mood was soon cut down when Roxas sneezed loudly. "You're going to catch a cold," Axel stated, releasing his hug.

"I will be alright!" the blond exclaimed, holding Axel tighter, not willing to let go.

Axel smirked. "Be a good boy and let's go to the backroom."

Roxas chuckled. "No."

"I will not suddenly disappear, Roxas."

"You will. That last time, you disappeared," the blond reasoned.

"What last time?" Axel inquired.

Roxas released a groan and finally released the redhead. He walked ahead, leaving Axel standing there. "I thought we were going to have me get some clothes. Are you coming?" he smiled.

Axel followed soon afterwards.

--

The small closet that was located at the back of the bar was soon filled with clothes. "This?" Axel threw out another one that would look good on Roxas.

"Too big," Roxas said in a singsong voice. His leaned his back against the wall. Soon, he slid down and sat while waiting for Axel to rummage through the clothes.

Axel sighed. "Don't be picky. Choose one, Blondie." He zippered his bag and tossed it into the locker.

"Why'd you have all these clothes in the place you work?"

"I can only get home by morning and afterwards, I have some morning classes that I have to attend. I have to bring some clothes to change."

"That makes sense," Roxas smiled. "But none of these would fit me. You're too big," he grinned innocently.

"And you're too tiny. Pick one. I don't need you getting sick."

"Are you worried about me?"

"Well," Axel ran a hand through his hair, "I guess so."

"You are unusually honest today."

"Believe me, I even surprise myself," Axel grinned.

"Well, I've come to a decision. I want what you're wearing," Roxas said, pointing to the black and white bartender attire that Axel was wearing.

"Huh?"

"Strip," Roxas said excitedly and playfully.

"What?"

"I said strip."

"You're doing this on purpose."

"Yes."

"I am not going to strip."

"Well then." Roxas stood up and approached the redhead. Before Axel could guess what the lithe blond was trying to do, he was suddenly assaulted by the blond jumping on him, hooking his legs around his waist. Unfortunately, there was more room behind, so they both ended up falling down to the ground with Roxas on top of Axel. Roxas situated himself on Axel's abdomen.

"Ow, I crushed my back." Axel cringed in pain. "What'd you do that for?"

"You're too young to be complaining just because of that small pain, Axie," Roxas stuck his tongue out and he leaned down to plant a kiss on Axel's lips.

Axel gladly welcomed it. However, before it could last long, Roxas suddenly pulled away. Axel groaned. "What?"

"The rain stopped."

"So?"

"I… have to go." Roxas stood up. He took one of the clothes that were lying on the ground and slipped it onto his little body. The shirt was obviously too big but he didn't care. He turned his back to Axel and began stripping, taking off his pants and putting on one of the redhead's tight trousers. Axel only watched with his heart rate fastened. He couldn't believe that the blond was stripping in front of him and he couldn't help but watch even though the only thing he could see was the back of Roxas.

Roxas was fully dressed soon. "Where are you going?" Axel asked, having stood up.

"Somewhere. My time is up."

"Huh?" There was apparent worry on the redhead's face.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to die or anything. I don't think it's that time yet. We will meet again soon, Axel. I'll be looking forward to it."

"Hey…"

"Yes?"

"Take care."

Roxas chuckled. "Yeah, I will. Thank you for the lovely evening, Axel. You take care too, m'kay?"

With that, Roxas ran off, going out of the small room and out of the bar.

"Did I really forget something about him?" Axel muttered under his breath. "If so…I have to remember." He sighed softly and went out of the room, going back to work.

--

I've made up a poll for Chocolate. Go vote, in my profile. It's basically what you think and what you want for the ending of Chocolate. Also, while you're at that, click the link to Cherry Lips. It's a really awesome AkuRoku with crossdresser!Roxas. I've also started a new Zemyx fic. Go read if you like. :D On that note, I'm sorry for the long update (midterm and writer's block) and I'm sorry that this turn out very weird but I really hope you'll keep reading. Thanks!


	10. What Kept Him Going

Okay, okay, so you guys are taking the poll! Hurray~! But that doesn't mean that this fic will end soon though, or maybe it is...It seems most people are losing interest over this fic. xD but yeah, I hope I'm wrong. I am so sorry for the long wait!!! This is un-betaed. I am sorry… XD Thank you very much!!! For everything! And here's the update. :D

**Chapter 10**

**What Kept Him Going**

_Everything began when you said 'I Love You'…only to turn my back and see that you're gone._

Roxas knew that nothing good was going to happen the time he stepped into the mansion. He hated it. It was where everything started and he hated it even more that he had to go back there every time—more so when Axel was not at his side. Everything was screwed up to the point that it seemed like it was impossible to remedy. The threads that connected everything together was tangled together and it was such a tight knot that no one could straighten it out unless having to cut the threads.

However, to say that Roxas had lost all hope was wrong. He wouldn't lose his hope. He might get desperate, miserable, and wishing no more than to give everything up, but he always had his hope with him. The only person that could remedy the situation was Axel and Axel alone. As for how long it would take, he had no idea and he didn't want to stop to think about it—since he had spent his time thinking for too long.

The mansion—the big mansion looked disastrous, dark, and full of unhappiness. It irked Roxas that it was the same place where he earned his happiness for the first time. It irritated him even more that it was the place where he thought he was the happiest person compared to all people in the world. Everything had changed and all he ever wanted was to go back to that time where he was happiest.

With his hands inside his jeans' pocket, Roxas sucked in a huge breath—as if the air would be taken away from him as soon as he entered the mansion. Everything he had done was a failure and this time, it would also be a failure. Axel forgot again after all.

Roxas smiled and chuckled grimly, knowing it was wrong to force Axel. He felt guilty even though he was pushed to do so. He had no other choice…and now, even his most daring attempt resulted as a failure. Why was it so hard for Axel to remember? It was no use… nothing was of any use until the seal was broken.

The mansion was empty and Roxas stepped in further, into Kadaj's room.

--

Axel let out a huge sneeze. He ran a hand through his hair, thinking that he must have caught the cold from Roxas. It was silent all evening. No one came into the bar and he had a lot of time to think. Drops of water could be seen painting the scenery outside the bar. The room temperature had dropped noticeably.

At times, he would wonder how Sora, his little half brother, was doing. Wondering how much the baby had grown since the last time he met him around a month ago, thinking whether his mother had feed him right.

--

"Kadaj…" Roxas called out silently, standing in front of the silver haired man while closing the door behind him softly. He glared, trying to avoid his gaze from the man but at the same time, felt that his eyes had been glued to the emerald eyes in front of him.

"You're back, Roxas," Kadaj smirked, sitting on the big leather chair. "You're always here on time."

Roxas only nodded.

Kadaj laughed. "Good boy."

"Stop talking and just do it," the blond averted his gaze to the corner of the room, seeming to be seeking something—as if someone would come out of nowhere to help him.

"You are being foolish, Roxas," Kadaj stepped closer and raised Roxas' chin with his hands so that they stared eye to eye. "That Axel of yours is the one that got all of you into this. He's the one that started this whole loop."

"Lies," Roxas hissed, trying to get away from the man in front of him but it was in vain. "_You_ are the one who did it. You are the one who came into the picture and destroy everything."

"Are you sure you're blaming me on all of this?"

Roxas narrowed his eyes. "It is no one's fault but yours."

"Are you sure you are not merely comforting yourself? You are the one who brought me here in the first place. You should remember that, Roxas."

"That's…" Roxas took a step back, his eyes glued to the floor. He opened his mouth to say something but found out that his voice had been caught in his throat. "I…"

"You are not in denial, are you, Roxas?"

"You bastard, you…"

"Harsh words shouldn't be coming out of your beautiful mouth, Roxas," Kadaj warned and seized Roxas' lips to his. It was a harsh kiss and Kadaj slipped with arms around Roxas wrist, his sword was still held tight in his hand. The silver head man pulled the lithe blond close until every inch of their body met. Roxas tried to struggle and wriggle out of Kadaj but to no avail. Kadaj was always too strong for him. Tears streamed out from his cerulean eyes. Everything was so messed up. He could not believe that long ago...he was also the man he loved. Kadaj… Kadaj…

Roxas put up offense and he bit down on Kadaj's venturing tongue, _hard_. Kadaj hissed, not amused and he let go of the blond. "Don't touch me!" Roxas shouted.

Kadaj smirked. "You're contradictory, Roxas."

"You betrayed us. You betrayed us, Kadaj."

Kadaj laughed, amused. "You're so innocent, Roxas. Did you just realize?"

"I trust you, Kadaj."

"And that's why you have sex with me."

"You…" Roxas launched for an attack but he was quickly held back by Kadaj. The silver head man shoved him to the wall and pinned him there and began assaulting him, ripping his clothing off, piece by piece.

"You told Axel that I'm your boyfriend and that we had kinky sex, didn't you?" Kadaj smirked, his hands roaming, touching every inch of Roxas' delicate skin.

Roxas bit his lower lips, trying his best not to make any sounds that would arouse Kadaj. "It was to jolt Axel's memories."

"By making him jealous?" Kadaj asked, his hands going inside Roxas pants. Roxas gasped and yelped, moaning.

"Stop it…" the blond pleaded.

"He is not jealous, isn't he? And it didn't help with recovering his memories."

"He…" Roxas panted and he became hesitant. "He is… he is…" it was as though he was convincing himself. _"Only if you promise to have sex only with me." _He wanted to believe that Axel was jealous—if he was not, why would Axel say something like that in the first place?

"He is _not_. He doesn't even remember."

"He was about to! You tried to kill him and you know that I would defend him and you restarted the whole fucking thing!!!" Roxas shouted, pushing Kadaj away with all his power.

"I told you I would get in your way," Kadaj smirked, "and you seemed to have made a lot of improvement this time. That wouldn't go well."

"Just do it! I don't care! I will try everything!"

"How ironic that you and Axel meet again for the next life again and again. Stay with Axel, Roxas. You don't want me to kill him, do you?" Kadaj drew out his weapon.

"I will end your life someday, Kadaj."

"You know the consequences to that. That's why you wouldn't do it anytime soon. Not as long as I keep hindering you. See you again in the afterlife." With that, Kadaj stabbed his weapon right at Roxas' heart.

Roxas could feel the pain and the crimson blood spilling out. Everything went dark afterwards. He was going to meet Axel again.

--

Axel jolted up yet again. He looked around him, finding himself in a room that he had no recollection of. It was a huge room with wall of red, crimson, painful red. He narrowed his eyes, sitting up on the bed. His eyes scanned around the room and his head was suddenly throbbing painfully.

"_I love you, Roxas!"_

"_I don't care what you think. It will never change."_

"_Why should all of this hinder us?"_

"_Kadaj, what should I do?"_

"_Go, Roxas! Run!"_

"_See you again…in the next life."_

All those words spurted into his mind endlessly, replaying and replaying over and over again until he was sure that it was his voice. He had no recollection. He was sure that he had never said any of that before. Was someone trying to play tricks on him? Why was he there? Where was he? Wasn't he supposed to be working in the bar? Wasn't today the day he was supposed to go have a talk with him mom about his financial problems?

The headache finally stopped after a while. He still held fast to the cover of the bed, gripping it tightly, preparing for another assault to his head that might or might not come. After a minute of two, everything was calm and he released his grip, staring to nothingness with blank eyes and expression. When he blinked a few times, he was finally taken back to the room painted crimson again. He took in a deep breath, trying to calm down his beating heart and his burning brain. Was he trying to remember something? But what?

He didn't know any 'Roxas' and he surely didn't know any 'Kadaj'. Was that even a person's name? Even if it was, he didn't know them. Slowly, he tried to stand up, trying to balance himself and he did. He shook his head a bit with his head still holding his temple, rubbing it a little. He took a careful step and when he found out that it was safe, he took another step and another and another—until he finally came upon a door. A gray colored door…

Slowly and carefully, he reached out, touching the doorknob made of steel and felt the coldness rushing into him as he opened the door. There was a bright light that shone through and he closed his eyes to avoid from being blinded. His hand was still on the doorknob, holding it fast, somehow afraid that the door would shut on him and would never open again.

Emerald eyes opened slowly after. The bright light was gone and now, all Axel could see was black and white. The whole area was black and white. He snapped his head and looked back only to find that everything was darkness behind him. The room that was in just now was gone. "I suppose, that means there is no going back, huh?" Axel muttered sarcastically. "What the hell is this? A dream? This is such a freaking dream," he grumbled and finally stepped in the area in front of him. Black and white—black and white—everything was colorless.

There, in front of him…stood…himself?! Axel frowned. It was his ghost. There was a big tree—a big colorless tree. The wind could be seen blowing as the tree was swaying left and right but Axel didn't feel anything. It felt like he had lost all his senses as he stepped into the area. He couldn't even hear anything. The only thing he could do was watch…observing. He tried to move and he was relieved to find that his leg was still cooperating with him.

The other Axel was standing under the tree, looking off…to somewhere with his arms crossed. If there was color, the sky would be bright blue and the clouds would be brilliant white. There was another slightly smaller boy, sitting on the grassy field, smiling intently, and sitting, relaxed, as if he didn't have a single problem in the world. The boy looked happy…truly happy.

Axel narrowed his eyes. Who are they? Why is he here? Questions began to spring up and he sought the answer. Walking and walking, getting even closer as each minutes passed by. He knew that the answers would be somewhere beyond there…. There… Where?

--

Demyx choked out blood as he began to concentrate even more to the spherical water in front of him. "Are you okay?" Zexion asked, apparent worry in his voice. He didn't expect any answer from Demyx and he received none. "That was a stupid question. You should stop, Demyx."

"This will help all of us. Just a little more," Demyx answered, his eyes closed, still concentrating.

"Dem…" Zexion closed pursed his lips. He took in a deep breath. "I trust that you'll be able to decide. Stop if anything's going wrong and tell me if there's anything I can help with."

Demyx's eyes were still closed and the sphere in front of him was starting to bend out of shape. "You could help by giving me a kiss," he grinned.

"…" Zexion narrowed his eyes. His face was covered by his bangs. "Just this once…" he sighed and leaned forward to plant a soft and chaste kiss on the blond's forehead.

The sphere was back into shape again. Demyx blushed brightly and so was Zexion. There was silence between them. "Just a little more," Demyx said, breaking the silence. "Axel will remember. I'm sure he will."

"Yeah," Zexion nodded and continued to watch while thinking of anything at all that would help Demyx and Roxas..and Axel.

--

So, out of 27 people who voted, 20 people wanted happy ending and 7 wanted the sad one. Also, 7 think that there's not going to be a happy ending and 20 think that it will be happy. Thank you for taking the vote! Again, I'm sorry for the long update. :D Tell me what you think! Thank you!

Wish you all the best!

terra hotaru.


	11. A Small Fraction of an Answer

This chapter has been beta-ed by **Lifes(dot)Lover. **Thank you!! Enjoy!!

**Chapter 11**

**A Small Fraction of an Answer**

"_Don't you remember Rufus Shinra?"_

One step, two steps, three steps, four steps—eventually it evolved to countless steps as Axel began to run, pursuing the answer that was set right in front of him, as if mocking and daring him to seek it. The redhead kept running. The more he ran, the more it all seemed to be going farther away, fading away, avoiding him, driving him further away from the answers. He was panting, cursing, and he was beyond irritated. Finally, thinking that he was acting really foolish—chasing after something so vague that he didn't even know, he decided to give up and stop chasing, standing there, trying to calm and level his breath.

"Screw it," he huffed, walking the opposite way.

"_Are you really going away?"_

"What?" he looked around but all he saw was the same image of the ghost of him and the smaller boy that he previously saw. There was no one else but him there. It was creepy now that he looked again. Before he began to chase it, he could see the images and the scenery move and now…everything stood still. The grass was unmoving**,** even though he could feel the wind, the two males stood still, frozen in place… Axel was beginning to think that a real ghost girl would creep up right in front of him.

"_Are you going to turn your back again…? Axel…"_ There was such sadness in the tone.

"Who?"

"_Look up front, Axel! It's just right ahead! It's just right ahead of you." _It was a different voice this time.

Axel turned and looked around with his emerald eyes. The stillness of the scenery was starting to freak him out and he found no exits that he could go to in the area. Sucking in a deep breath, the redhead walked again, moving closer to the two boys. "_I have to remember." _It kept ringing in his ears. He had to remember—about…something.

As Axel walked closer, the wind suddenly blew strongly. The more he stepped, the more the wind was trying to blow him back to where he came from. Axel continued to persist further—each step became heavier and harder to take. The wind stopped then and Axel halted, blinking…before he knew it, the still frame that he was seeing came into life. The color started bursting in, painting everything—the trees and the grass green, the sky brilliant blue, the clouds white, the flowers a mess of pink, red, yellow, and purple.

Axel stood at the side, watching as his ghost and the blond talked. "It's so peaceful," said the redhead, standing with his back against the huge tree that stood tall.

The blond laughed cheerfully. "Don't you love it, Axel? It's not every day that we get to have a nice quiet day like this."

"I am merely interested in spending time with you," the redhead smirked.

Axel, who was standing there, decided to step closer and have a talk with the two, wanting to ask what was happening. He approached them but they continued with their conversation, ignoring Axel—as if he wasn't even there.

"Look at the sky, the grass, everything. It's nice, isn't it?"

"I think you look nicer, Roxas."

Then, Axel's head began to throb violently. _"Roxas, Roxas, Roxas…" _Those words kept chanting in his brain.

Roxas blushed at the redhead's comment and he kept his head low to the ground, watching the field of green grass as if it was a new entertainment for him. He played around with the grass and the flowers that bloomed in the middle of the grass with his index finger, making circles, and pulling out a weed, observing its root. "Plants die so easily…" the blond whispered softly.

"It's just like humans, right? Once they are pulled out of their roots, they'll die. Humans are the most fragile living creatures."

Roxas nodded hesitantly. "My root has been pulled out once too…If…" Roxas tilted and raised his head, his cerulean eyes eyeing the pair of emerald that was staring at him. "If it were not for you, I'd have died too," he laughed softly.

"I'm sure you're able to stand up on yourself without me, Roxas," Axel said gently and sat down beside Roxas, eyes never leaving him.

Roxas released a soft sigh, smiling. "No one likes me around."

Axel chuckled. "What are you talking about?"

"Everyone is opposed to me staying here. You shouldn't have brought me here, Axel. Your reputation…"

"That is foolish," Axel laughed. "I'm the master of this castle. I have the right to bring anyone I want in."

"But, I—"

Roxas gasped when Axel's lips covered his. Blood came rushing up, painting his pale face red. He stared at the redhead's closed eyes with widened cerulean eyes, not quite believing what was happening. The redhead kept still, pressing his lips against the blond's, not even moving an inch. Roxas was dumbfounded and rendered breathless for a while and soon, he was snapped back to his mind. He was glad to find out that his brain was still working.

Hesitantly yet somehow determined, Roxas pushed back and he parted his lips. He timidly stuck his tongue out, licking the redhead's lips, giving them a taste. The redhead was quick to react. Without any hesitation, his arms circled around the blond's little waist, pulling him close. Both boys stumbled backwards and Roxas was on top of the redhead. Roxas yelped into the kiss and he tried to push back, trying to stand up but Axel's arms kept still there, holding him tight, unwilling to let go.

Roxas struggled for a while, but he finally submitted. He rested his palm on the redhead's chest, gripping the front of his shirt tightly while savoring the pleasure and the taste of the redhead's tongue assaulting him. The tongue ravaged around his mouth and he felt slightly tickled**;** he smiled into the kiss while also moving his tongue to battle Axel's. Roxas let out a soft moan when he felt Axel's hands roaming his body. Axel smirked, satisfied that he had gotten that response from the blond boy.

Roxas' hands moved up and he grabbed Axel's spiky red hair, messing around with it as the temperature around them heat up. They were undoubtedly out of breath but none of them wanted to separate the contact. Thus, they stopped but still with their lips touching, never losing contact. Breaths c**a**me out in soft huffs and pants. Roxas pulled away. He rested his head in the redhead's neck, inhaling the scent while at the same time playing and licking the delicious skin.

Meanwhile, Axel, who was standing there all along, watching from the sides, only grumbled. "What the hell?" he narrowed his eyes, cursing. "So, all I'm doing here is only to watch them making out? I don't even know them," he scoffed.

A while later, he was suddenly struck with the worst headache he had ever experienced. He knelt down, his palms formed into fists and he slammed them down to the ground. His head was throbbing and it wouldn't stop no matter what he did. It was as if it would be only a matter of time until his head burst into pieces and all he could do was fade away while watching the inside of his head, his brain, his veins, come spurting out to the ground.

To his relieve, his head didn't burst nor did it stop throbbing. Images came flooding and rushing in endlessly. Images that he didn't remember he ever saw, dialogue that he couldn't recollect he ever made. It was all of the blond and him in the huge mansion—chatting, smiling, teasing each other, kissing, showing and demonstrating love…all of the things that he didn't even have the faintest memory he had ever done. Voices were ringing and echoing inside his head—voices that he didn't know who they belonged to. It was incoherent…

"_It's Rufus…he's…"_

"_Roxas, hang on!"_

"_No, don't kill him!"_

"_This is Kadaj. He helped me when I was lost."_

"_He shouldn't have been the master of this castle. He's incompetent."_

"_I have a plan."_

"_You're…the seal?"_

"_Your memories shall be sacrificed, your heart and also your soul. That is the consequence of being weak."_

"_Stop! Stop it!"_

"_You won't be able to find a way out of this loop."_

"_Axel did everything for me. Now, it's my time to do the same."_

"_This is no use…it's just…"_

It stopped. All of it stopped, leaving only silence. He looked up front, only to find darkness. Everything was gone—gone and it was not returning. Suddenly, without knowing what happened, Axel felt wetness on his cheek. He raised his hand, slowly touching his own cheek, and felt the coldness of the single drop of liquid. No, it was not water…it's salty…was it tears? Nonsense. Axel never cried, no matter what happened. That should be tears. That shouldn't…

Axel pursed his lips together and he was back. He was back in somewhere that he recognized—his room. Was it all a dream? He must have fallen asleep earlier, or, rather, was someone trying to play with his mind?

But Rufus Shinra… he knew that name from somewhere before. He looked around his room which was brightly lit. He looked out the window and found out that it was already dark. The sun was setting, giving the room a faint glow of orange. Its color mixed with the black colored sky in unison. Axel looked back to his room and, as if someone was trying to help him, he saw a magazine right in front of him. It was opened in the middle of the section on his roommate Xemnas' bed.

He slowly let his feet down and touched the wooden floor of his room. He stood up and balanced himself, afraid that maybe once he stood up, the migraine would start to assault his head again. To his surprise, he was okay. There was no throbbing, no flashing images, nothing. He began to wonder if he was suffering seizures from watching YouTube too much.

He reached out and took the magazine. His emerald eyes began scanning the opened page, looking up and down, sideways, left and right. He read through the words that were there. There was a picture of a blond man on the page, wearing **a** white suit and white pants, standing brilliantly.

"This is…Rufus Shinra?" Axel huffed. He laughed. Rufus Shinra was undoubtedly the infamous richest man in the world who owned the Shinra Company. Nobody knew what that company did to make money but it was a common fact that Rufus was filthy rich.

Axel drew in a deep breath and finally released it. "Roxas…" he called out and he threw the magazine back to the bed. The pages flipped and the opened section just now was lost. "Maybe I should go find this Rufus," he said, raking his hair with his hand. His back was against the opened magazine.

The magazine was already flipped over to another section. It was written "**President Shinra, raping and abusing underage kids. Under trial." **

**--**

Huffs and pants were filling the little shack in the middle of the forests. "That was all I can do," the Mohawk blond said, coughing.

"I think Axel is starting to remember. Are you okay, Demyx?" Zexion asked, worried, his bangs covering his face.

"I'll be alright. I'm sorry I couldn't help more."

"You've helped more than enough. I'm sure Roxas will be happy."

"It's up to them…to reverse everything…I don't know what will happen…" Demyx said uncertainly.

"Yes, it's up to them and no one will know what will happen. But I'm sure that Roxas and Axel will meet once again."

"I hope it's not the last," Demyx chuckled but there was no humor in his voice.

"You should have some rest."

Demyx nodded and Zexion helped him walked over to the bed.

--

I know this had nothing to do with this fic, but MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!! :3 and also happy new year. :3 XD Still not sure when's the next update gonna be. So yeah. XD

Have a GREAT winter break,

terra hotaru.


	12. Put Your Faith in Me

I'm back! With an update! Hope you enjoy! Consider this as a New Year gift! :3 thank you for taking the poll! It definitely encourage me to update this and also for your lovely reviews!! Thank you!! This is beta-ed instantly in a short time by **Jayrin Paige**. :D thank you!!! Enjoy! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

_--_

_It was wet. Footsteps could be heard clanking and clunking on the metallic floor, accompanied by the wet dripping sounds._

_"Hurry, run!! There's no time!" A redhead said cheerily, dragging the lithe blond that was falling behind. He was not about to let go. There was no way that he was going to give up after all that effort._

_"It's no use! He will come back for me! Where could I run off to?" the blond asked, desperation was apparent in his frail voice._

_"To my place. It'll all be okay. You just have to do one thing," the redhead threw his gaze to the blond, smirking all the while, still running._

_"What?" the blond tilted his head to the side. He liked the redhead's smirk._

_"Put your faith in me," Axel smiled confidently and he halted for a while. Hordes of people dressed in white could be seen chasing them from behind. Hastily, he carried the blond, putting the little figure in his arms and he ran, ignoring the blond's cute blush. There would be time later when he would go back to tease the blond's shyness. _

--

**Chapter 12**

**Put Your Faith in Me.**

He had lost his sense of time. The weather was extremely cold which was very contradictory to what his memories remembered. He remembered that it was supposed to be summer. It was supposed to be hot… he should be sweating in that weather. Was it? He even began to doubt his own memory and brain. He was not sure what was right or wrong anymore. However, he was quite sure that he would acquire the answer he was looking for by going to this person called Rufus Shinra. He did not know why, but it didn't seem to matter—it didn't matter if he had lost his sense of time. The only thing that was important was that he must somehow find a way out…yet, he was not sure of what... Wearing a tight black sleeveless shirt and tight leather pants, and with his jacket in his hands, he stepped out of his small apartment room.

The redhead immediately wore his jacket as soon as he walked out his apartment building. The cold wind was blowing mercilessly to the redhead's lanky body. After safely tucking his hands inside the pockets of his jacket, he traced through the street, walking passed through the pedestrians. He kept his head down, somehow feeling cautious—suspecting that he would be attacked and assaulted by some unknown force if he somehow drew too many attentions towards him.

The road to the Shinra Company seemed very long while it was merely five blocks away from where he was—at least, it was the main small part of the company that was conveniently located very close to where he lived. He stepped inside the thirty-eight floors building and took the elevator to the thirtieth floor. "What can I help you with?" a girl who was working in front of the desk counter asked with a smile plastered on her face.

"I want to look for Rufus Shinra," Axel said with a firm tone.

The girl chuckled and giggled, thinking that the redhead was joking. If it was, it was an absurd joke. "_You? You_ want to meet Mr. Shinra?" she mocked.

"Yes," Axel answered.

The girl laughed. Suddenly, the phone that was set on the desk rang and she picked it up hurriedly. "Yes?" she asked and her face straightened into a serious one. "Yes. Yes, alright. Yes," she said into the phone and hung it up after that. "Mr. Shinra wanted to meet you. You can come with me," she spoke and walked away. Her high heels could be heard clicking and clanking on the floor.

Axel narrowed his emerald eyes and chose to follow. She took him to another elevator that was separated from the public elevator, located far in the corner of the area where hardly anyone could notice. Axel was puzzled, but he decided to ignore his feelings and pressed on. Soon, he was taken into the fiftieth floor of the building. Axel couldn't help but wonder how. Wasn't it supposed to be a thirty-eight floors building? How could they go up to the fiftieth floor?

When they arrived, Axel was confronted with a huge square area made of platinum, chrome, and all kinds of metal. He was standing right in front of a blond man, wearing the same white suit from the magazine. The man then turned to face him. His face was pale and he had that sinister look in his eyes that made Axel instantly had a cautious feeling towards him. Axel was alerted. The girl stepped away and disappeared inside the elevator.

"I presume you're here to look for Roxas?"

"Roxas?" Axel asked.

Rufus chuckled. "Don't play fool with me, Axel. I know what you want," he said sadistically.

"What do I want?" Axel asked, dumbfounded, having no clue at all.

Rufus laughed. "I don't know what game you're playing this time."

_"Axel…"_

"What?" Axel looked around the area. He could almost swear that he heard a whimpering—calling his name desperately, as if waiting to be saved. However, the room was empty. It was merely a huge blank square area filled with papers, files, folders, tables, lights, and blocked by tall walls. It was what an office should look like. He was very sure that there was only him and Rufus Shinra here. Was his mind playing with him again?

"_Axel…please…Go away, hurry. Go..."_

"What was that?" Axel cringed, taking a step here and there, spinning, to find where the source of the whimpering came from.

"What was what?" Rufus answered intelligently, smiling.

"I heard…"

"Your ears are fooling you, Axel. You've been on drugs again, right?"

The redhead merely shook. Drugs? He didn't do drugs. He had never… but…the sound had disappeared. Had he been using drugs without knowing it? What was happening?

"What are you doing here, Axel?" the man demanded with a harsh, yet at the same time calm tone.

Axel shook his head and backed away, still looking around the room with disbelief. He was sure that he wasn't hallucinating. It wasn't all in his imagination. That voice sounded very familiar, very distant, yet very close. Where? There must be a secret place somewhere. It's right within that room. _C'mon, call me again, whoever you are_. Axel silently muttered to himself. There was something wrong here. Something was amiss, but he couldn't quite get himself to figure out what.

"Tell me, you imbecile!" the man demanded again. He slammed his hand down the table that was set right near him. Axel could have almost sworn that heard some mechanical device...doing something. However, he couldn't find the source.

There was silence. No more sound, nothing. There was only silence that was enshrouding them. Rufus Shinra didn't make a single sound, waiting patiently and breathing evenly, waiting for the redhead in front of him to utter out the answer for his question.

"Roxas..." the redhead narrowed his pair of emerald eyes, still examining the room with caution. There must be...somewhere.

"So, you _are_ here to look for that filth."

"Filth?" Axel repeated the word, wondering if he had heard wrong. He could sense hostility coming from the man. However, was he wrong? Rufus Shinra was a man of wealth. He was the richest man where he lived. How could hostility be directed towards him? And how did that man know Roxas? From what it seemed, that man also knew him.

"You two disgust me."

"Have I met you before? How do you know me? I don't..." Axel shook his head. His eyes wondered around, trying to find anything that he could use to protect himself in case anything unimaginable happened.

"Stop playing a fool, Axel. You came here, giving the boy to me, telling me that I could do anything with him as I please, and now you want him back? Hypocrite."

"I gave...Roxas to you?" Axel stopped; his brain malfunctioned all of a sudden. That couldn't be right. From the last conversation of the redhead and the blond's ghosts, he should be the one saving Roxas. Not handing Roxas to that man in front of him. Everything was wrong.

"Yes, you did," the man replied easily, tracing around the room calmly, taking steps by steps. His steps echoed around the room, creating eerie noises. "Did you forget? You came here, bringing the boy, trading him for a huge amount of money. I said I would perform experiments on him and you said I could do anything I please."

"I didn't..."

_"Don't listen to him, Axel! He's trying to manipulate you!"_

"Roxas?" the redhead breathed. "Where are you?"

"You are again, hallucinating. Tell me, Axel. How many pills did you pop today?"

"I'm _not_ taking any drugs!! You're hiding something!" Axel grabbed a pen that was set on the table behind him. Rufus didn't seem to notice.

That table, something's wrong with it.

The metals surrounding the area were too thin to be a wall and the strange sound it emitted whenever someone took a step...

Axel took a step forward and Rufus still stood there, not even wincing, not showing any kind of expression. "Don't attempt anything foolish."

"There's something... you're hiding," Axel narrowed his eyes and he quickly dashed forward.

Rufus didn't put up any defense. He stood there, not budging, not moving. "You really want to know, Axel? You want to know what I did?"

"What did you do?" Axel snarled, watching Rufus' movements carefully. He noticed something in Rufus' hand and without any further ado, he rushed forward towards the man and with precise accuracy, he raised his hand, with the tip of the sharp pencil facing down. He stabbed the man's hand. The man hissed out of the pain. The pencil went deep inside his hand, stabbing out at the other side. Crimson burst out violently and the man could feel his hand becoming numb. The small black device that he was holding immediately fell down the metallic floor and slid away.

Axel quickly went to take the small device that seemed more like a remote control. There was two buttons there, one red and another black. He was against doing anything hasty and pressing anything, but he felt the need to risk it. It was not the time for doubt and backing away. Something inside him was shouting at him. He seemed to remember something. He had been there before. He had...it was so far away...deep inside his memory, but he couldn't seem to recollect anything. Why was he being so contradictory? It was as if he was being controlled by something, by someone. He was simply...not himself. Was he really who he was supposed to be? Why was he even thinking about such trivial and useless things?

Risk it.

Even though red had always meant danger, Axel decided to press the red button.

Working mechanical devices could be heard resounding throughout the room. Everything opened up. The wall worked its way above the roof, disappearing, and opening up to the new scenes that was hiding behind it all along. Rufus stood up, taking out the pencil, hissing all the while. He took in all the pain and he quickly ripped apart his shirt sleeves to tie it around his hand to stop the bleeding. "My creation," he said proudly.

Axel looked around. The tank was filled with water. It was merely thin layer of glass separating them from the water and from the—strange shaped creatures that were floating around inside.

"What?" Axel looked closely, not quite believing what he was seeing. The whole square area...four walls, all were blue, water...all around. There were creatures that shaped like humans but with tentacles popping out of their abdomens with eyes popping out of said tentacles. There were horses, but with human head, seemingly dead since the water around them was painted with faint crimson. There were babies, fetuses, floating around with creepy smiles on their faces. When Axel looked closely to examine what the heck was going on, one of the babies suddenly opened its eyes. The redhead jumped back a bit, not quite expecting that to happen. He took in a deep breath and released it.

"This is all my creation, Axel. Some died, some survived, some cursed me for having performed the experiment."

"What the heck are you doing?" Axel growled. "Where's Roxas?" he felt the sudden urge to save the blond from whatever danger Rufus was trying to put on him.

"This is for the sake of humans. Babies are crying? Mothers are complaining? I simply perform the experiments that cause them to put on smiles on their faces, _forever_, isn't it beautiful? Horses are beautiful? Some people wanted to become one with the animals? I granted them their wishes. I cut off their heads and connected them with the bodies of the horses. Somebody wanted to become creatures like what they saw on TV. Easy. I implemented seeds of tentacles in their intestines and in matter of minutes, the tentacles came bursting out, opening them up to any possibilities. It was easy. All is possible. Just say it, and the Shinra Company will make your wishes come true. We are simply striving to help the world be happier," Rufus explained with calm and enthusiastic tone. "Don't you see the beauty?" he added as he got no response from the redhead.

"You're insane..."

"Several people have told me that. Yes, I am and I'm proud to admit that. I did something for the world. It's you useless fools that did nothing, merely dreaming up impossible dreams and came to me to make it come true."

Axel shook his head. "This is... you are taking this too far. What are you thinking? This is _not_ happiness! You think they're happy?!"

Rufus smiled, chuckling. "Of course they're not. Can't you see that they're _dead_? Can't you smell the beauty? They died, because of their foolish dreams. Yet, some people still held on to their dreams, hoping for it to come true. Didn't you come to me so that your wish would come true too? Didn't you want to be happy? That's why you came to me."

"I didn't! I would never wish to be happy if the consequences are these. This is absurd. Give me back Roxas!"

"You gave up that boy so that you gained happiness and now you wanted him back? _You _are absurd," the man laughed.

"I never gave Roxas up! Stop manipulating me!"

The man laughed again. "You didn't. But you did come to me to acquire happiness. You are messed up, Axel—the lord of the mansion. You are a mess. You are frail and weak. You are simply human, aren't you? Humans..." he laughed dryly, shaking his head at the sheer irony.

Before Axel could come up with another word, he heard someone banging on the glass. He spun around to find the source of the banging. His eyes met with the very familiar bright cerulean. That pale as snow face, that bright yellow hair... "Roxas!" with instinct, the redhead ran up to where Roxas was. The blond was at the other side of the mirror, kneeling, looking at the pair of emerald orbs with pleading expression. _"Go!" _he mouthed, bubbles of water could be seen emitting from his mouth.

Axel stared. Roxas was there, but who was Roxas again? Who? What? Carefully and slowly, he reached out, touching the glass cautiously, as if it would break with just a single touch. It was so thin, so thin that Axel thought he could reach inside in order to touch the blond that was kneeling before him. He knelt down, mirroring the blond's pose. When he was about to touch that image of the blond before him, he was blocked by the mirror, barricaded.

Rufus stepped closer, knocking on the glass. "This might look thin, but nothing could penetrate through this, Axel," he chuckled.

Roxas reached out his hand, touching Axel's. They couldn't touch. It was upsetting that they were merely separated by a thin glass wall. Rage suddenly filled up the redhead's whole being. "I'll get you out of there!" he yelled.

Rufus didn't do anything. He watched with much interest in what the other man was trying to do. He leaned his back against the glass, observing as the redhead lifted the wooden chair inside the room and threw it to the glass. The glass didn't even budge, not shattering, nothing—it was as if Axel did nothing.

"This is precious glass, made of diamond. It wouldn't break. It would never break. Stop wasting your energy," Rufus said calmly. "Roxas is my most precious creation. He was able to adapt to all situations and to all injections given to him. He is simply wonderful. Very beautiful. He is immune to everything. He is immortal, he could live forever!"

Axel didn't listen to the man's word. He kept tossing furniture and everything he could find inside the room at the glass wall. Nothing happened, his effort was in vain. "Do you even know what you're trying to do?" Rufus asked again.

"I didn't know what the heck was happening! But something inside me is telling me to get him out of here!"

"So, you're trying to be a hero, my Lord? This is quite amusing."

"I am _not _trying to be a hero. This is what's right. I must do this." For once, the redhead was finally doing things at his own will...

Suddenly, everything stopped. It was as if time halted. Rufus stopped moving, stopped talking...he stopped breathing altogether. In addition the creatures in the water that were floating and swaying around came to a halt. Roxas also stopped banging on the glass. Everything was brought to a stop.

"You want to know what happened?"

Axel took a couple of steps back, seeing that suddenly, someone who looked just like him appearing out of nowhere, from his body. "Who are you?" he asked, shakily.

"I am you," the other redhead smiled.

"What?"

"Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Axel."

"I'm Axel."

"What's your point?"

The other redhead laughed humorously. "That we both the same person, yet at the same time, not."

"Who..."

"Stop with questions, Axel. Questions will get you nowhere. What you need is answers. Let me tell you," the redhead smiled gently. "I am you, you are me. We are the same...but right now, you are nothing more than a mere shell without personality, with fake emotions... I know it hurts. I know how you feel. Perhaps, we are not the same. I am who you are, Axel. It's strange...talking to myself, you know? I have been deceived and I've been a fool."

"Just tell me...what happened?"

"This is the first time I met Roxas. It's laughable," Axel's clone walked around, touching the glass gently. "Somehow, everything has been twisted in a way that I could never imagine. Roxas has been fighting hard....to hard... I wonder if... Could you do me a favor?"

"Huh?"

"Help me save him and I will help you out of this. This must mean something... that I'm able to get out of your empty shell and have a talk with you like this. It has been millions of years... I lost count," the redhead grinned.

"I don't understand what you're..."

"You don't need to understand. If it has come to this, from my knowledge, it would be soon until we become one again, body and soul. Isn't that fun? So, help me to help you."

"I...alright, I guess."

"Good boy. I know you have a good personality that time I created you near my death."

"What?"

"This glass is easy to break. Foolish Rufus, boasting around. Don't listen to anything this man says, Axel. They were all lies. Well, not all. But, don't listen to him, got it memorized? Roxas will tell you. Roxas will help you," the redhead clone of Axel put one of his hands on the glass and within seconds, four glass walls shattered. Water was not spilling out at all. Everything was still paused. "Until we meet again, my other," he smiled and disappeared.

Then, everything came back. Water suddenly burst out with uncontrollable force, bringing everything that was barricaded by the glass out. Axel was caught off guard and he was pushed away by the intensity of the water. The glass all went down, disappearing into the water. "What?!" Rufus was shocked as he tried to find a safe place. However, no area was safe as the water was threatening to swallow everything in its wrath. The creatures gathered together and as if they wanted revenge, they all piled up at Rufus, preventing the man from getting anywhere. At Axel's disbelieve, the creatures came to life. Snarls and growls could be heard emitting from the creatures. "I created you!! What are you trying to do?"

"Revenge..." dark low voice could be heard.

Before the redhead could observe what happened next, he was suddenly shoved away by yet another strong force—this time, it was weight.

"Axel!" the soft, frail, and gentle voice of the shaking blond soothed into Axel's ears.

"Roxas?"

"You came! You came! You remember now?" the blond yelled happily, tugging at the front of the redhead's cloth, hiding his face in the warmth. They were floating above the water.

"Eh, what?"

"You still don't," the blond lifted his head, smiling. Disappointment was apparent on his face.

Roars and heavy breathing could be heard and Axel was immediately alerted. "We must get out of here, pronto," the redhead said, taking in everything with his emerald eyes. He held the blond tight and stood on his feet on the waist high water. Crimson was fading in the water as the creatures devoured that man they once called Rufus Shinra. Axel was unable to watch and he kept his hand to the blond's eyes, preventing the lithe blond from watching what was happening.

Axel finally eyes a door at the right side of the area. He dragged the blond there and the blond ran with together with him. They went into the door and arrived in a white hallway, the water coming with them as the liquid found its way to the new, dry territory.

"This is funny," the blond laughed happily.

"Hey, you're not allowed to be so cheerful!" the redhead protested, quite irked by Roxas' ignorance. Did the little blond even know what was happening?

"Don't you remember? You took me out of here with that cocky smile on your face," the blond giggled.

"I... what?"

Then, it was all gone. Axel was not dragging the blond anymore. There was no water, it was all dry. He couldn't feel anything. Was he _watching_ once again? Yes... he was again... _watching_. There were ghosts of him and Roxas in the same area he was in—in the hallway. The redhead was carrying the blond, running away from the hordes of what seemed like scientists chasing after them.

_"Put my faith in you?! Are you joking!" the blond growled, trying to wriggle its way out of Axel's hold._

_"Stop moving, Roxas. You know we don't want to die here together."_

_"We're going to die! There's no way I could go."_

_"Geez, talk about pessimistic, Sunshine. Cheer up."_

_"But...but..." the blond blushed again, finally giving in, willing himself to be taken away by the taller man._

_"Trust me, I'll get us out of here. Don't you remember who I am?"_

_"I don't even know you," the blond replied dryly._

_"Well, you'd better know now. My name's Axel , got it memorized? And I am your savior," the redhead said in a low, dark, playful tone, still running away, turning instantly at the corner when he found one. "You must repay your debt. You shall become my slave and I shall do everything I want with you!" he purred slyly._

_Roxas took in a deep breath, shocked at the man's tone and he quickly reached out to take off his slippers and hit it to the redhead's thick head. "Let me go, you perv!"_

_"Hey, I'm just joking! Take it easy!" the redhead smiled happily._

_"You didn't sound like you were joking."_

_"I am! Or was... or whatever. Look! We're almost near the exit! Hold on tight, Rox!"_

_"Eh, what?!" Roxas screamed when he knew that they were jumping off a fifty storey building. He quickly sneaked his arms around the redhead's neck and wrapped them there tightly, closing his eyes. "You're insane!!" the blond cried. _

_"I am! Isn't it fun? Fly!!" the redhead shouted, then his expression changed in a second, looking at the blond with his gentlest expression. "Put your faith in me, okay, Rox?"_

_The blond finally opened his eyes to the gentle and calming voice. His cerulean eyes were bright, shining, and sparkling with glistening tears of fear and excitement. "Mhhmmm..." he whimpered silently, tightening his hold, nodding quickly._

_"Good boy!" the redhead grinned._

Then, it all vanished again. Axel found himself, again, taken into a whole different scenario this time. Darkened sun, dying trees...and darkness. What was awaiting for him next?

--

Seriously, I didn't know that it would come to this. Well, anyway bits by bits are revealed. :D and…yes, I know it's strange, note that the keyword in this chapter is _lies. J_ust a little more and I think I might be able to wrap the whole thing up. Well, not a little, considering the stuffs and the questions I have to answer. I sure hope I don't leave plot holes. Anyway, spam me with any questions you've got when you're reading this fic. They would be awesome references so that I don't leave any questions unanswered, but of course, I'm not forcing you to do it. :D Thank you very much!! Tell me what you think? Once again, Happy New Year! Love ya all!! –glomps everyone-

-terra hotaru.


	13. Taking Over

"_I know… the way to make it out of this loop… but I'm unable to comply… I'm sorry… Axel. I want to search for you and tell you how I feel, tell you how sorry I am."_

**Chapter 13**

**Taking Over**

The sun was black. There was no shine in it; it was completely covered by darkness, slowly eaten away by the even darker clouds that stained the orange evening sky. Sand was flying around all over, stirred by the wind that was threatening to blow everything away. Axel put an arm to his face that served as a protection so that his eyes wouldn't be assaulted by the sand. After the wind calmed down, he retracted his arm carefully. His eyes fluttered, looking around the area.

It was deserted. Everything was _dead_. There was no sign of life. The area he was in was composed of the color black, orange, and brown. The trees were all dead, no leaves, bald, as if some monsters had just visited the area and sucked the life out of the whole place.

"_It started here…"_

A voice suddenly echoed in his head. He could immediately recognize that it was his own voice. That must be the voice of the _other_ him. For a while, he had no doubt that he was going crazy.

"What am I doing here?" he muttered, looking around more in hopes to find any clue or direction as to where he should go.

He walked around, trying to find something that he didn't have any clue about. Everywhere he walked… it all looked the same. There was no change in scenery, nothing. The only thing he saw was endless sea of brown sand, dying trees, and the black sun that seemed to follow him everywhere he went.

He paused all of a sudden, taking a step backwards. "Roxas…" he muttered under his breath. Emerald eyes glued to the small shadowy figure that was appearing from the distance. However, the shadow was not alone. There was another man that was standing beside him.

Axel narrowed his eyes to get a clearer view. He waited and waited, just standing there, remaining still, and thinking that the two figures would approach him if he just waited. However, no matter how long he had waited, the two figures didn't approach him. They made motions and movements as if they were walking towards him, but their distance was still awkwardly the same as before. Axel thought for a bit before he finally decided to approach the two figures himself.

Halfway in between, the wind suddenly stirred. It became more and more violent the more Axel stepped forward to the figures. Axel closed his eyes again, unable to see anything from the raging sea of sand that was assaulting him. He could feel the uproar ceased after several minutes and then, when he opened his eyes, he was already taken into different scenery, but still at the same place.

Roxas was walking and walking through the endless sea of desert. Sweat trickled down his cheek, his face was pale as a ghost, but he still kept walking, ignoring his exhaustion. He didn't seem to be able to breathe anymore, but he still kept proceeding. Axel approached the familiar blond, standing right in front of him, but Roxas merely passed him through as if he was invisible. The redhead shook his head in disbelieve. So, he had to watch again this time.

"Roxas, what are you doing here?" a man suddenly appeared in front of Roxas. The man had silver hair and was definitely taller than the blond. The man's eyes were bright acid and his expression was of worry.

"Who are you?" the blond hissed, stopped dead on his track, glaring at the man.

"I'm Kadaj. I'm the one who protects this part of the castle."

"Get out of my way," Roxas murmured, trying to pass through Kadaj.

Kadaj didn't obey Roxas, he proceeded to step in front of the blond and pulled him into his embrace. "You shouldn't be in here. The more you stay in here, the more your life will be sucked away," he explained.

"I don't care," the blond breathed.

"So… this is how Roxas met Kadaj…" suddenly, another Axel that the redhead was already familiar with came out from his body. Everything suddenly paused and Roxas and Kadaj were paralyzed.

"Who's Kadaj? Who are you? Who am I? Who's…" the redhead paused.

"Too many questions," the other Axel smirked. "I'll answer you when this is all over. Surely, you must have some recollection after seeing all of this."

"You… are a master in a castle and… I am created before your death…you're trapped inside me."

The redhead smiled, looking at the other redhead. "It seems you're starting to remember. Become one with me, Axel."

"Does that mean I will disappear?"

"No," he laughed. "We are one and the same. We have been one for all these years. I live inside you and you live inside me."

"You created me. I am your creation. My purpose is so you can be reunited with Roxas, right?"

"It seems you know more than you're giving out."

"I…" the empty shell's expression saddened, his eyes depicted his emotions. He looked away, avoiding eye contact with his creator.

"Axel, you are an important part of my life. I didn't merely create you and then make you disappear once you've achieved your purpose. I want you to be happy."

"An empty shell couldn't be happy," the shell spoke, looking at his master straight in the eye. Then, he smiled a sincere smile. "I will return to you. I've experience a lot and I undoubtedly know about your feelings to Roxas…since, strangely, I have the same strong feeling for him."

Axel smirked. "You two did it, right? Making love?"

The shell blushed. "He's the…"

"Roxas has been working hard… Can you do me a favor?"

"Yes?"

"I need to take control over this body and turn things around… I want to at least make things right before I fade away."

The shell shook his head. "Fade…away?"

"I'll be okay. Now, could you slumber inside me and let me take control over this shell?"

The shell nodded. They looked at each other before Axel took a step forward to the shell. "Good night, Axel," he whispered before they fused together, eyes closed.

When Axel had taken control over the body, he slowly opened his eyes. The same scenery was what he saw once he took grip of his surroundings. He moved his muscles around, opening and closing his palms, shaking his feet. Then, he smirked. "It's good to be back," he sighed in relieve. "It's about time I kick some ass," he laughed once more, a devious grin apparent on his face.

"I don't care if my life is sucked away. As long as it will guarantee Axel's safety, I don't mind," Roxas answered wearily, not even having the power to push the silver head in front of him away.

"Roxas, if you're dead, then you can never guarantee Axel's safety. You are special, Roxas. Very special. I know a way to preserve my master's life."

"Axel's life?" Roxas looked up, seemingly interested with what Kadaj had said.

"Yes."

"How?"

Axel, who was standing at the side, crossed his arms, and rolled his eyes. He never liked Kadaj to begin with and Roxas was falling straight into his trap. Kadaj had always wanted to take over the castle ever since Axel appointed him to become a part in the lower part of the castle, watching over the stone that was hidden underneath the huge castle.

Kadaj knew that Roxas was special. He knew that Roxas was a successful experiment that could be used to activate the stone in the castle.

Now that he had control over his own body again, he had an urge to make everything right. There was no use standing there watching. He wondered slightly if he could alter the past to prevent everything from happening. However, there was a huge risk involve. The result was unpredictable, but… now that it had come to all this. He had no choice other than to visit the past. The past that Demyx and Zexion created was not enough. It was enough for him to return to take control of the shell he had created, but it was not enough to change the situations.

Of course, he knew that it was Demyx and Zexion that helped him. Those two were his most trusted servants. He needed the power of the stone; he needed to activate the forbidden power or Kadaj would keep looping things around and trap them in that endless sea of loop.

It was his turn to search for Roxas. It was his turn to sacrifice everything.

--

Rushed? I hope not. Confusing? Definitely. XD I'll try to wrap this up and answer questions. Sorry that this bit is short. Hope you enjoyed. Thank you!


	14. Revisiting the Past

"_Hey, Axel. Remember that one time when I said I hate you? I take it back."_

**Chapter 14**

**Re-visiting the Past**

Using his power, Axel got out of the images of the past that Zexion and Demyx showed him—or rather the shell. Even though it had been countless years since he was a part of physical embodiment in the world and what seemed like an eternity since he used his powers, he was able to adapt to everything quite well. The shell he had created functioned well and it provided him with hopes and chances that one would never have gotten if he/she was deceased. Far inside him, he knew that the shell was slumbering, waiting for its time to take over again, when he faded away.

After he stepped out of the imagery world of the past, he found himself back in the castle. The old castle was well taken care of by Kadaj, obviously. He looked around, recalling all the lingering memories and happiness that occurred to him a long time ago…no matter how many years or centuries had past, all the memories seemed like it was happening just yesterday. The only person who could make him smile, the only person who dared to counter his words, the person who was so stubborn and at some times annoying, but unbearably cute…the existence that he would never be able to forget…Roxas…

And now…the scent was gone…the aura… he couldn't _feel_ Roxas in any part of the castle anymore. His trace was gone. Roxas was gone. He didn't know for sure since currently, with Kadaj taking over, he was obviously the previous master of the castle. Thus, there could a chance that his sense and control over the castle had weakened and he didn't sense Roxas. However, he felt like a part of him had disappeared—a really strange and unexplainable emotion that even a lord of a castle couldn't explain. "Where are you, Roxas?" he muttered under his breath, watching the flickering flame that lighted the pathway leading into the chambers.

The castle was dead silence. Not a single sound could be heard. There was no animal, there was no live. It was deserted. However, there was a strong scent of darkness and death…overwhelming and taking over other feelings. It must be Kadaj.

Axel would go to confront Kadaj right then, but he knew that it wouldn't bring Roxas back. Thus, before dealing with Kadaj, there were other matters that he would need to take care of.

--

_I will meet Axel again, right? But where is he? Where's Axel?_

He was all alone, waiting for someone who didn't come. He hugged his knees close, sighing heavily. Was his time over? Was that why he couldn't see anything? Was that death surrounding him? All he wanted was merely to say sorry, say sorry to Axel… to Axel who remembered everything…the old Axel that he knew… he had caused so many problems and now, he was being stubborn and selfish. Maybe he should have just complied with the only way to end the loop and everything would turn back to normal… but… was it wrong to hope that his simple wish would be granted?

--

Axel walked into the room. The brilliant stone was set in the middle of the throne room, spinning around beautifully, emanating bright light, shining the area. "Roxas…" Axel breathed, watching as the boy's body was plastered to the stone, as if the blond was the guardian of the stone. Never leaving… Even though its shine was blinding, Axel knew that the stone was starting to lose its shine. The stone that was made of human's life, made of human's energy. The castle had always served a purpose of taking away people's lifes, helping humans—as they would say it and extract the lives into the form of the stone. It also extracted human's will to live, but it seldom do so since there were so many humans in the world that wished for their death, so many people that wanted to commit suicide, but was unable to do it.

Kadaj was the one that was given the job to hunt down those humans and bring back their soul to the castle so that the stone would shine, giving life to the castle, and giving the ability to travel through space and time. Axel doubted that Kadaj was doing his job at all. Ever since Roxas was brought into the castle, the stone had been neglected and the inhabitants of the castle had stopped completing their duty, knowing that Roxas could bring the source of life to the stone. Roxas was a successful experiment; too successful…he was created from a part of the stone that was stolen by Rufus years ago. His will to live never died, never got exhausted.

And now, the stone in from of Axel was starting to flicker, losing its light…and the body that was guarding it was slumbering peacefully, never wakening up. That could only mean one thing…that Roxas' will to live was also shattering. On the other hand, that also meant that Roxas was still alive, somewhere, in some unknown part of the world. No doubt, Kadaj must have known about Roxas' whereabouts and his coming back to the castle. It didn't surprise him that Kadaj didn't stop him. He was a sadistic freak that wanted to watch everything unfold.

Stepping forward, Axel touched the stone. He had the intention of taking away Roxas' body at first, but he knew that it was no use. If he did that, Roxas might die. Thus, he closed his eyes, disappearing from the room.

--

The day everything went wrong… was the only place where he could think of starting to meddle in.

--

"_Axel, are there any times where…you did things, but you didn't know what you're doing?" Roxas sprung up with the question all of a sudden when they were spending their quite time in the castle yard._

_Axel looked at the boy who was sitting on the vast area of green grass. He raised his head then, staring up to the orange sky. The sun was about to set. He thought for a bit, reminiscing, trying to recollect something that would help in answering Roxas' questions. He finally stopped thinking and decided to ask the blond back. "What do you mean?"_

"_I don't really know…what I'm doing right now," the blond shook his head, hugging his knees close, staring off into the distant._

_Axel paused for a while. Then, he smiled, putting a hand on the blond's head, patting gently, and joining the blond on the grassy field. "It's normal. There are a lot of confusion in this world."_

"_It's not normal… I know what I'm doing, yet at the same time… I don't… Axel… I'm sorry. I'm sorry," the blond began to sound grim, but there were no tears. The blond's expression was struck with guilt. His eyes were escaping the emerald that belonged to Axel. _

_Axel narrowed his eyes a bit at the statement. "What are you sorry about?"_

"_I've done something very wrong…" Roxas hid his face in-between his arms._

"_What is it?" the redhead asked cautiously. _

"_I've done something very wrong… I should never be forgiven…"_

"_Roxas, what are you…"_

_The blond refused to talk._

_--_

The Lord of the Castle was inside the throne room as usual, watching the brilliant stone that was the source of life for the castle. He had been spending less and less time in the room ever since Roxas was with him. However, he could notice some changes from the blond…the blond was definitely acting strangely around him and always looked at him with guilt in his expression.

The conversation that had took place earlier proved it.

--

_While he was standing there, with his back facing the door, he could hear the huge double door creaked open behind him, and footsteps began to echo throughout the area. The silence was instantly removed. He turned, knowing exactly who it was standing behind him, a familiar presence that was strangely mixed with another disturbing aura. _

"_Axel, I'm sorry about…just now…" the blond shifted uncomfortably, speaking shakily, still avoiding eye contact with Axel._

"_Roxas, you shouldn't be in here," the redhead said in a serious tone. _

"_What?" Roxas blinked._

"_You shouldn't be in here. I'll meet you outside."_

"_But, I could help you, right?! I could help you if…"_

_Axel narrowed his eyes. "Help?"_

"_I heard…I heard from Kadaj! I heard about your sickness and about how you needed the stone in order to live. That's why you are gathering lives."_

"_Kadaj?!" the Lord's tone was filled with malice. "You met him?"_

"_Definitely, my Lord," a devilish voice that was filled with much amusement suddenly sounded and a man with silver hair stepped into the room, standing behind the blond. "So, it's true…" he looked around the room with much interest. "The stone is in here…"_

"_Kadaj, you don't belong in here. Return to your part of the castle."_

_The silver haired man didn't comply. Instead, he smirked, drawing out his blade, staring at the tip of the sword with hidden interest, as if waiting for the right time to devour its prey."And what can you do, __**Lord**__?" he countered with a mocking tone. "You have no power. You have all you have because of this stone…because the stone obeys you."_

"_Kadaj, what are you doing?" Roxas asked, astonished. "You said I could handle it alone."_

"_Shut up, you filth!" Kadaj screamed, a smirk was still gracing his face. _

_Roxas narrowed his eyes. _

"_Now, everything is complete."_

"_What are you planning to do, Kadaj?" _

"_Taking over this castle and kill you," the man hissed, rushing forward, smashing the lithe blond to the side, and began attacking the redhead with his blade. However, he was unsuccessful, there was a barrier protecting Axel that, rendering Kadaj from hurting him. _

_Kadaj stopped with his assault after a while, standing still, panting, still holding his razor sharp blade, glaring at Axel. Axel's face was calm, collected, figuring out what Kadaj was planning to do. He shifted his attention to the stone after a while, and then wounds started to appear on Kadaj's body. Kadaj hissed out of the pain, clutching his heart._

"_Tell me what you're planning to do, or I'll reap apart that heart of yours that doesn't belong there." Axel spoke._

"_Heh," the silver head smirked, not answering the question. Because of this, he ended up screaming in pain as his heart felt like it was being tied by an iron string, tightening and tightening as time passed._

"_Roxas, what are you doing with him?" the redhead turned his attention to the blond._

"_I… I want to help you get rid of your disease. I don't want you to die!" the blond answered. "And Kadaj has a way of assisting you!"_

"_You believe him?!" Axel screamed, scaring the blond._

_Kadaj laughed, his laughter ricocheting eerily. "Of course he trusts me. We've bonded, after all." _

_Then, the pain in Kadaj's heart stopped._

_Axel took in a deep breath. "Bond?" _

_Roxas looked away, ashamed, closing his eyes. _

"_And not just one time, right, Roxas?"_

_Axel eyed the blond, seeking denials and some confirmation that what Kadaj just said wasn't true. Roxas stood still, paralyzed, numb, unmoving, losing his ability to speak momentarily._

"_I would be able to save you if I bonded with him…" the blond said in a shaky voice, body trembling, shaking out of anger, out of guilt._

_Axel felt anger taking over him even though he knew that he shouldn't let the emotion took control of him. He let it happen and the next thing that occurred ensued so fast that Roxas didn't know what happened. _

_Axel was suddenly coughing out blood, doubling over in pain. Kadaj immediately took the chance to pick Roxas up and pushed him to the stone. The next thing Roxas knew was that his body was connected with the stone, glued, becoming one slowly. Kadaj watched with a dark grin on his face, then he shifted his attention to the redhead. _

_Axel immediately took action, backing away as Kadaj was assaulting him. However, the barrier had strangely vanished. He was vulnerable, open to any attacks. The silver haired man laughed a maniac laugh, continuing to slice the man before him. Before his life went out, Axel created a shell that would serve its purpose. He was betrayed. He was stabbed in the back by the person he cared most about, but at least, he wanted to meet him one last time. Roxas was unconscious. His body had become one with the stone. _

_Everything went dark as Axel was beheaded by the maniacal new Lord of the Castle. _

_Kadaj panted after he had killed Axel. He released an insane laugh and then stood forward to the stone, watching the blond. "You're beautiful," he whispered. "So beautiful…since you have been such a nice boy…" he reached out, patting the blond's head. _

"_Heed me. I am now the new Lord of the Castle. Obey my every order and I shall feed you with what you need," he spoke to the stone. _

_The stone dimmed and shone brightly once again, agreeing to Kadaj._

"_Very good. Roxas, I will give you as much chance as you need to correct everything. I will give you the time in eternity to grief, mourn, and feel guilty over your decisions," Kadaj smirked. "A loop sounded nice….an environment where Axel would never remember you, a place where you have to do everything over and over again, regretting, rotting away. The only way to end this loop is failure. I am not as heartless," he smiled, looking at the blond. "I trust you are listening to me," he narrowed his eyes. "Your death is the answer. Once you have accepted death, I promise, I will end everything for you."_

_--_

"_Is it selfish that I don't want to die? I can keep saying sorry, but I know that I don't deserve your forgiveness. I have been blinded and have done something so wrong and irreversible. I couldn't even forgive myself…how could you? I did so many odd things… I forgot how long I've been in this loop and I started screwing up here and there, making up stories to get your attention, and losing patience. I know it's not your fault…but it hurts… I am selfish… I have involved Zexion and Demyx into this mess and I fumed out on you when I shouldn't be. You don't remember anything… maybe that's why… if I were you, I'm sure that I would choose to forget too. After all, who would love a nobody like me? Which is the truth? Which are lies? Axel, just one last time… Am I allowed to act selfish just one last time?"_

--

luondrammatica: I hope I cleared the confusion? Thank you for the review! I love you too. Look forward to hear from you again.

Quick update. This story is nearing its end. And I have to admit that this fic is kinda a ripoff out of some ideas that you might have seen. Erh…shot me if I've done something wrong. Written under one and a half hours in school, just like with the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks!


	15. Correcting what Went Wrong

**Chapter 15**

**Correcting what Went Wrong**

Axel took in a deep shaky breath as he was thrown out of the darkness and re-appear in a place that he was so familiar of. Everything was as he had remembered. The darkness, the feeling, the aura that was emanated, the light, the noises, the silence, the loneliness...everything was too familiar. There was no doubt about it, he had been successfully transported to his castle...to the castle...at the time back when things hadn't gone wrong.

How did he know? He had the feeling...he could feel the stone...the stone was still the same...the same feeling as it was before...this time without the familiar feeling of Roxas within it. The castle was still somewhere inside the castle and if the stone had fully co-operated with him and brought him back to the timeline that he had wanted...then...

He was somewhere in the isolated part of the castle—the dead trees, the dying sun, the dry orange colored sky, the sandy brown ground, the softly blowing wind that was attempting to lull everything into its deadly slumber... Axel walked forward to the way out of the area. There was no time to stand around there. Time was of the essence. He had no idea when everything would unfold, but he was determined to correct and end everything. Both he and Roxas didn't deserve to go through the whole eternity in misery.

--

Roxas hummed quietly, softly, silently, almost inaudible. Where was he? He didn't know... no wait... he knew...but he refused to accept it. He was...one with the stone...he was within the stone... he lived forever within it, never to be separated, always returning... always there.

He didn't feel like going on anymore. He wondered what was happening.

Finally standing up, he was determined that he would give everything a last try. If he still failed, then he would have to let it all go... However, no matter how far he walked, no matter how hard he ran, no matter how many times he fell and got back up, he couldn't find a way out of the darkness. He couldn't get out of where he was. There was no way out. How could that be possible? He usually had the freedom to get out of the darkness as long as he simply...walk around and wished hard enough that he wanted to see Axel again...

He did the same thing as he did before in order to start a new cycle...in order to start a new loop. However, nothing happened. He was still in the same place...no way out... The darkness kept consuming him...until he couldn't see himself anymore...until he couldn't see anything anymore. Everything was dark.

"_Sometimes, don't you wish that you would rather fail rather than have an infinite loop, Roxas?"_

"Kadaj..." Roxas hissed angrily. "What are you doing?! Let me out of here, you've promised that you'll give me an eternity to try and get out of the loop."

"_And up until now, you still believe that I would fulfill what I've promised? Roxas, you're too naïve. It's time to end your former Lord and annihilate you. It will all be over soon...and together with the stone, I shall be able to rule the world. You've been consuming too much of the stone's energy, Roxas. I should have killed you from the start."_

"Let me out of here."

There was a loud cynical laugh...then, it fade away...fading and fading...until Roxas was left alone...with the dreading silence...all alone...like that time he was experimented upon and trapped...until Axel came for him... would Axel do the same thing as the past too this time?

"Axel would never come for me..." Roxas whispered dryly, shakily, giving up... sitting down and hugging his knees close. "All alone..."

--

Axel arrived in the throne room.

Cautiously, he sneaked in the room, careful so that he would not be seen by the other Axel that was standing in the middle of the room, facing the stone. He was lucky to have the Lord with his back against the front door. With careful and precise speed, he dashed through and came to a pillar, hiding behind its shadow, watching and observing carefully, making as little noise as possible. Then just as immediately as he had hidden himself from view, the double door of the throne room opened with a loud shriek.

Axel glued his back against the pillar, observing from the dark. There... the blond walk in... Roxas...walked in... "Roxas..." Axel breathed, still observing, careful not to let his presence be discovered.

"Axel...I'm sorry about...just now..." Roxas began with his timid voice, shifting his weight left and right, his eyes unable to meet the Lord's gaze.

"Roxas, you shouldn't be in here."

Axel took in a deep breath...wondering when he should go in and interrupt the whole thing. Everything went wrong from there. Roxas had betrayed him. His precious, most trusted blond had bonded with the servant of the castle. That, itself was unforgivable. However...he forgave Roxas. He loved Roxas. Roxas was the only one that made him feel. In that lonely and deserted castle, the blond was the only existence in the world that made him actually feel like...he had a heart. He knew he had a heart all along...but he always thought that it didn't belong there...that it was no use for his heart to be there, because...there simply was no use. He was the Lord of the Castle after all and he had the stone...with the stone, he could control and do everything.

On the other hand, Roxas was an experiment... a very successful experiment that he had saved...that had faithfully devoted himself to him. He knew that Roxas would never betray him for no reason. Roxas wanted to save him and he trusted that... things...just went all sorts of wrong.

The fate of the Lord of the Castle...was that...even though he had the ability to control everything and he had the stones aid in order to keep and preserve the castle...or even that he had the ability and the power to rule and take over the world...there was a price that one must pay. Anyone that used the power of the stone would be stricken by a deadly illness.

The illness would take over the owner's body slowly...slowly and slowly... and the more the Lord used the power of the stone, the quicker his body would rot. His insides would be eaten...his flesh would decay and his bodily function would be taken away mercilessly. That was the price that the Lord should pay in return of the stone's power.

Axel inherited the power. He was given the title the Lord of the Castle. He was one of the descendants and he had no choice but to continue the jobs that his previous ancestors had passed down upon him...protect the castle and protect the stone. The past Lords had attempted to take over and rule the world, but ended up dying early. Axel tried his very best to not use the power of the stone as much as he would need. However, his life was still being eaten away slowly.

Even until he met Roxas, his health was protesting. He knew that he wouldn't live long.

The longer he spent time with Roxas, the more he found out that he was really fond of the blond...that he would do anything for the blond and that the blond would undoubtedly did the same thing for him.

However...he came to realize soon...that the stone wanted Roxas to possess his power after he died. The stone wanted...no...demanded Roxas. The stone wished for Roxas to become its new master.

--

"Of course he trusts me. We've bonded, after all._"_

Axel quickly snapped out of his thought and stepped out from his hiding, revealing himself in the light. "Kadaj..." Axel hissed, his emerald eyes placed upon the silver head servant.

Kadaj blinked. "What?... there are two of you?" he questioned, looking back and forth between the Lord and Axel.

"Who are you?" the Lord asked, looking at the mirror image of himself.

"I am you... I am the future. I have come to correct everything that had gone wrong." Axel explained. "The stone wanted Roxas... and Kadaj knew that... he's planning on taking over the stone and combining Roxas and the stone together, taking control over both Roxas and the stone..." he explained.

"What?" Roxas shook his head, looking in disbelieve, couldn't quite register what the Axel was saying.

"Combining Roxas and the...stone...?"

"How is...that...possible?" Roxas inquired.

"You're... an experiment, Roxas... You're a part of the stone. You are created from the stone...and you are pure," Axel stated coldly. "Kadaj tricked you into bonding with him so that you're not pure anymore... with that... when you're one with the stone, the stone's power would decrease immensely... so that the next Lord wouldn't get stricken from the illness that a Lord has to bear as heavily."

"Very good! Very good indeed, you figured all that out, Axel." A maniacal laugh rang in the room suddenly. And then...everyone disappeared. One by one... The Lord disappeared into the darkness, Roxas and Kadaj were gone, leaving only Axel in the throne room with the brilliantly shining stone and...the other Kadaj, that was undoubtedly also came from where he came from. "Now, how long did it take you to figure all that out, _Lord_?" Kadaj mocked.

Axel merely watched, not stating anything.

"I wouldn't let you change the past." Kadaj said in his low, dark tone. "Because...that would be too messy. Everything would be changed, have you even considered the consequences of all that you're trying to do? Imagine what would happen." Kadaj laughed again.

"Where's Roxas?" Axel demanded.

Kadaj laughed, clutching his stomach, and then made an expression of disgust. "That boy? My _Lord_, you are indeed foolish. Couldn't you see? Emotions have made you weak. Emotions are the variables that contributed into your death. Your love for that boy has led you two into all of this. Don't you see?"

"Where is he?"

"He's dead."

"You're lying."

"He's dead." Kadaj replied easily again.

"Roxas."

Kadaj scoffed humorously before drawing out his blade. Axel watched, observing. Putting all his concentration into focus, he was able to summon his weapons.

"Interesting," the silver head commented. "I can't believe that the stone would still listen to a former Lord like you. A stupid and foolish Lord who had given his power away in exchange for foolish emotions."

"Kadaj, humans live...fueled by those emotions. Those emotions are not foolish."

Kadaj then rushed in to Axel, slashing his katana violently. Axel skillfully dodged the attack, dancing and backing away, with a pair of chakrams in his hand. Occasionally, he would block the attacks using his weapons. Swaying away, he stepped on the pillar and dashed through the wall. With frightening speed, he was able to see an opening and get behind Kadaj.

However, Kadaj was quick to respond as he immediately side dashed, avoiding Axel's attack and recovered and retaliated in a way that was not humanly possible. Stepping on the side of a pillar, he was able to get himself close enough to Axel. Somersaulting, he successfully inflicted a rapid dash of attack to Axel, slashing and dicing insanely, smirking seeing blood came out of Axel's flesh.

Axel knelt down on the floor, hissing and panting.

"_You_ are a former Lord, Axel. Do you honestly think you can defeat me? I have the protection of the stone. I could do anything. You may be able to get the stone to co-operate with you at times, but there's no way that you'll be able to defeat me... the Lord of the Castle who is bestowed upon the full power of the stone."

Axel glared, trying to stand up, but finding out that he was being restrained by some unseen forced. He was unable to move. He felt very heavy as if gravity was pulling him down with ten times as much force as usual. His chakrams dropped from his hands. He was panting and breathing heavily. "Where's...Roxas?" he spoke.

"You're still worried about him? Shouldn't you be worried about your own life?" Kadaj smirked. "Don't worry... I'll send you to join him soon. If you two love each other _that_ much, you'll be able to meet one another in the afterlife." Kadaj raised his hand, the tip of his blade shimmered as it was shone by the light.

Then...he slashed down with all the force he had, aiming precisely at Axel's neck, determined to behead the redhead once and for all.

--

I'm sorry it has been long. Thank you for everyone who stayed with me. Thanks so much!! Hope you enjoyed.


	16. An End to Everything

**Chapter 16**

**An End to Everything**

Roxas stood up from where he was sitting. He could sense something really odd was happening... somewhere out of his boundaries, but he didn't know what or why or even where. He looked around, but again, all he was faced with was everlasting darkness, surrounding and embracing him, refusing to let go or vanish from Roxas' surroundings no matter how much the blond wished it gone.

Huffing a short breath, he took a small step forward. "If my death is necessary...so be it," he whispered under his breath, closing his eyes.

Faintly, he could hear something... but it was so faint... like a blur of noises and inaudible voices. All streaming into his head as he concentrated even more and tried to separate himself from the darkness in the area. The crystal would certainly grant him his wishes, right? He was... a part of it after all...

Rufus created him from the purest part of the crystal, he had become one with it and he was the core of the castle itself. There was only one way to end everything.

Faintly, he could see everything happening... images after images suddenly bursting into his head. Images of how Axel went back to the past and how he saved him...the shell...Axel coming back... all was told to him in an instant. "Axel's...back?" he murmured, dropping on his knees. "He's...back..." he whispered shakily, not knowing whether he should feel afraid or happy...not even knowing what these emotions he was feeling currently.

Looking up from the darkness of the floor, he could hear some more noises. This time, it was clearer...this time, he could distinguish Axel's voice from the noises. Clattering...some clattering noises...and then it fell silent as he heard some swooshing and more awkward sounds.

Why did he suddenly see all of that? Was the crystal aiding him?... No...he had a feeling that all the crystal wanted was for him to finally accept death and be complete...with him becoming one with it. That was all. His life was worth nothing to begin with...he was a nobody to begin with... there was only one person in the world that made him... made him feel like he was a somebody again...

--

"It's happening..." Zexion muttered, sitting on the bed, looking up to the sky.

"The castle...do you think we should go help?"

"I doubt that there's anything more we can do, Demyx."

"But-"

"It's Roxas and Axel's problem. There's no point of us meddling in. This problem is..."

"I still think we should at least hurry back to the castle," Demyx said sternly, looking at the lilac haired boy.

There was a short pause before Zexion nodded, standing up with a smile. "I agree. Let's go."

Demyx smiled, happy to have Zexion agreeing with him.

--

Before Kadaj could slash his weapon down to Axel's neck, he was stopped by a flash of blindingly bright light. He cringed a bit, pausing from his action and lifting his unoccupied arms to block his eyes from the light. "The crystal..." he whispered, looking at the stone that was suddenly trembling and the whole castle started to rumble.

Axel quickly took that chance to take his chakram and immediately dashed in to attack the silver head man. Kadaj was quick to respond as he raised his blade almost as fast and blocked the attack. He stepped back, eyeing both the redhead and the crystal cautiously. Things didn't bode well for him.

--

"I accept my death," Roxas said, giving up, talking to no one in particular...but somehow, he knew that the crystal was listening to him...where ever it is.

_You've learnt that there's no point in struggling?_

Roxas was immediately alerted. He looked around, standing up. "Who's there?"

_I am you_.

"Me?"

_We are one._

"You're... the crystal?"

There was no answer. Suddenly a bright light appeared in the middle of the darkness and Roxas saw a small version of the Crystal floating right in front of him... peaceful and quiet.

"Where am I?"

_You are inside me. You are me and I am you._

"Well then, get me out." Roxas yelled, almost pleading. "Axel's..."

_If you request and wish upon it, the Lord shall be rendered unharmed._

"What are you saying? I want nothing more that for Axel to be alright. Wait...the Lord? Do you mean Kadaj or Axel?"

_Axel. Axel has been always our Lord. That foolish man has took and controlled us forcefully for his own selfish purpose._

"But you agreed to..."

_The castle agreed to him. The castle has a mind on its own. ...Do you wish to end all of this?_

Roxas was hesitant for a while. "Yes." He nodded firmly, his gaze hard and cold.

_Surrender yourself. The only way to end this is for you to end._

Another silence.

"Alright..." Roxas swallowed, releasing a small sigh. "But before I die..." he smiled...a soft and gentle smile. The light emanated from the Crystal illuminated his sadness, doing nothing to help Roxas from hiding that small hint of regret.

--

"Roxas!' Axel yelled, while frantically dashing forward, assaulting Kadaj. Kadaj swallowed, trying his very best to avoid the attacks, a drop of sweat rolling down his temple as he blocked an attack. His eyes were glued to the former Lord in front of him, not wanting to take any chances that would send him to his grave.

When Axel suddenly paused, he was immediately alerted and stood his ground, taking his stance in case the redhead suddenly sprung in for another series of attacks.

Axel's head was facing the ground. His whole body was shaking and trembling together with the castle. His rage was apparent. Wind was suddenly blowing harshly and the background and the area they were in was suddenly shifting and changing frantically. The trees, the grounds, the blowing leaves, the continually setting and rising sun, another sun that was color black, extreme black, darkness, the running clouds, the shattering ground in which they were still standing on...awkwardly balanced...and running and continuously shattering pictures and images.

Axel took in a shaky breath as he felt the wind blowing against him... the familiar scent of Roxas that he had missed for so long was present, but he couldn't see him anywhere.

The crystal in the middle of the area came to life and suddenly blinking and shining ever so brilliantly, spinning around in its axis and then it stopped as soon as Roxas' body suddenly appeared in the crystal, glued, and one.

The form was sleeping.

Axel raised his head, noticing the blond.

Kadaj shifted his weight and watched, letting his guard down, entrance by the brilliantness of the crystal combined with the beauty of the blond.

Axel also let his guard down.

The body in the crystal stirred awake. Roxas lifted his head, cerulean eyes fluttering open suddenly. "Axel..." was the first word that left his mouth.

Axel merely watched, stepping forward hesitantly.

Kadaj snapped back into reality. He smirked as he spotted the huge opening in Axel. It was his only chance. He was finally given the chance to end everything once and for all and gain the full power of the crystal, of the brilliant crystal.

Grinning his devious grin, and chuckling, he went in, the tip of his blade shining, ready to take down its prey.

Roxas noticed and immediately shifted his attention to Kadaj. His expression was blank and cold, lacking life. With a small nod, Kadaj knelt on his ground, screaming in pain at the top of his lungs.

Then, his expression softened as he shifted his attention back to Axel. He smiled weakly. "Get out of this castle... Axel."

"What?"

"I'll take this castle down together with Kadaj."

Axel frowned.

"It is the crystal's will as well as mine," he smiled again, expression soft as a feather.

"And why is that?" Axel asked, trying to stand still as the rumble of the castle became even more violent.

The castle suddenly split apart in half.

Axel carefully dodged away from the split, getting closer to the crystal and Roxas.

"There's no need for more people to suffer through the same misery. There's no need for the crystal to live on in this world. It serves no purpose...other than causing harm."

"And what about you?" Axel asked sternly, expression still and calm.

"I'll disappear along with the sadness of this world."

"And why are you there...all acting tough?" the redhead scoffed, narrowing his eyes.

Roxas chuckled softly. "It's the only way to end everything."

Kadaj tried his best to stand up, but to no avail as he was immediately pulled down by the sheer force of gravity. His power was being drained away slowly by some unseen force. Axel dodged as a huge brick fell to his direction, watching as the building began to crumble.

"That's a lie, there must be some way to..."

"If I accept my death and if I die... I will die together with the crystal. That's the only way to end everything."

"That's a lie, Roxas! You know that's a lie!" Axel yelled, side stepping and avoiding all the rocks and the crumbles of the castle. He stood right in front of the crystal, right in front of Roxas. His hand shot out to reach for the blond's cheek as both his chakrams fell on the floor.

Roxas was unable to do anything as his hand was bounded as one to the shining stone. He smiled...he didn't feel anything...he didn't even feel the Lord's warmth, but he smiled... somehow... he could faintly bring back the memory of having that hand cupping his cheek, how it felt back then, how he would blush pink, and lean in to the comfort.

"Roxas..." the Lord's voice softened.

"Let me go!" Kadaj screamed, frustrated that he was bounded by some spell that rendered him vulnerable. He panted.

"Silence!" Axel barked, glaring at the silver head, his emerald eyes turned crimson, filled with malice and anger.

And then, as if some force was listening to his rage, a large boulder, a huge part of the Castle fell...right above Kadaj. Kadaj was unable to avoid or dodge anywhere. He tried to lift his arm in an effort to smash the boulder with his katana, but he couldn't move. He barely had any energy left to hold his blade in place. "The crystal's power is mine!" he yelled.

"Rest in peace, Kadaj." Axel whispered as he closed his eyes.

The huge brick fell on Kadaj, smashing the man... wish such intensity and force that the man was splat on the ground, his flesh bursting and splashing everywhere. And then, all there was...was a mess of blood, pooling alongside the crumble and Kadaj was gone.

"Kadaj is gone, Roxas. There's no need to..."

"My decision will stay the same."

Then, Axel started coughing, the cough became worst as he felt his throat burn and about to rip apart. He coughed out blood.

"Axel..."

"I'm supposed to be dead too," the redhead shook his head. "I'm the Lord of this castle."

"But you have to..."

"I can't run away. I'm the Lord, Roxas." Axel was thrown into a fit of coughs again. His hand that was holding Roxas' cheek was retracted to cover his mouth. A pool of blood came out from his throat. He could feel his throat ripping apart.

The shaking of the Castle was becoming even more violent, so violent that there was no way for Axel to stand straight. He fell on his knees

"Axel!" Roxas yelled, his head shot out, wanting to touch Axel, wanting to _feel_ the redhead...for one last time. "Axel!' he cried.

"I guess, this is the end?" the redhead chuckled, looking up. It was getting worst. The Castle was falling apart. It was apparent. The crumbles and the ground splitting apart...it was all too apparent.

"Axel! I'm sorry... I'm really sorry."

"Stop apologizing, Rox," Axel laughed bitterly. "There's no need for apologies."

"But I..."

Axel shook his head, trying his very best to stand up while his knees were shaking and he was still coughing.

"I...I caused all of this..."

Axel chuckled, finally standing up and stood tall right in front of the blond. Everything was falling apart...

"I shouldn't have..."

"If you didn't appear in my life...everything would be empty," Axel laughed, his voice soft and weak, the disease obviously weakening him.

Roxas released a small sigh as he looked up to those emerald eyes. How he missed those cat-like eyes.

"Empty is not cool, right?" Axel managed to joke while releasing several fit of coughs.

Roxas chuckled. "Definitely...not..." he managed to choke out as his eyes were already filled with tears, welled up so much that everything he saw was blurry. Everything was a mess...

"I know..." Axel laughed again and his expression softened considerably if it was possible. "Hey, Roxas."

"Yeah?" Roxas looked up again, noticing that the walls of the castle were already disappearing.

"You asked me whether I've ever did things before, but I didn't know what I'm doing, right?"

Roxas nodded.

"Well, I did. Falling in love with you... was something I did...but didn't know what I'm doing. It was all a mess. My only regret..."

"My only regret..." Roxas titled his head to the side, his voice synced together with Axel's.

"Is not meeting you earlier." They spoke together...in harmony.

And...Axel and Roxas could both feel the grounds crumble as they both began to sink into the darkness, together with the other crumbles of the castle.

Before they were permanently separated, Axel managed to lean in to steal a kiss from his blond. Roxas' eyes were moist and watery as the hand left him...as they began falling, him with the crystal and Axel...alone...

"Maybe we'll see each other again...." Roxas choked out.

"In the next life," Axel spoke softly.

"Yeah...we've been through so many loops... We'll..."

"See you again, Roxas..."

"_See you again, Axel..."_

And then, they disappeared into the darkness as everything crumbled and fell, fell... leaving nothing behind...the castle that once stood tall, disappeared...along with its Lord, the Crystal, and its fake Lord.

--

This is...kinda my failed attempt in alternate and fantasy universe. So.. sorry about that. There are a lot of flaws and plotholes. Thank you for staying you guys. I appreciate all the reviews. Love ya all!

This is NOT the end. So... _To be Continued._

Feel free to take the poll about this fic in my profile.


	17. A Fresh Start

**Chapter 17 **

**A Fresh Start**

As Demyx and Zexion ran up the hill that led to the castle, Demyx paused midway, eyes wide, staring off to the distant. Zexion followed from behind, also paused, eyeing the Mohawk blond from the corner of his eyes. "Why did you stop?" he queried.

"There..." Demyx muttered softly, pointing to the distant, up in the hills. All he saw was crumbles and the castle...gone... "The castle..."

Zexion turned to look at what Demyx was pointing at, wondering what had surprised the blond so much. Then, when he saw it, his eyes went wide. "It's gone...?" he stood straight, taking a step forward, still looking and searching whether there was any signs of life. "Let's go, Demyx."

"..."

"Demyx!"

"Huh?" the blond shook his head. "Yeah, right."

And the two ran to the remaining of the castle...the area where the Castle was supposed to be standing tall.

--

When they had arrived at the site, they stood there. Zexion was walking around. "What about... Axel and Roxas?..." Demyx muttered, kneeling and desperately trying to move the piles of crumbles out of the way. He threw away any rocks and any obstacle that hindered him from finding his Lord and Roxas away.

"It's no use...no one...nothing would survive this..." Zexion closed his eyes. His grim expression hidden by his lilac bangs.

"But... they're..."

...

Zexion opened his eyes then, stepping forward to approach Demyx, trying to offer him comfort. But he paused midway. Something was distracting him. There was a small shining object in the middle of the crumbles. Carefully, he approached the object and slowly taking away some crumbles to get to the object.

"What is it?" Demyx asked, standing behind the lilac haired boy.

"I think...it's the stone."

"You mean... that support the life of the castle?"

Zexion nodded. His hand shot out to retrieve the small shiny object. It was blinking...becoming dim as time passed.

"Is there any way...we can help them?" Demyx inquired slowly and carefully.

Zexion nodded again, looking at the crystal.

"Are we...thinking of the same thing?" Demyx chuckled dryly.

"I believe so."

"Those two are lucky."

"I can't deny that, but they deserve it."

"I agree." Demyx answered easily. He looked hesitant for a while, staring deep into Zexion's feature. When the lilac haired boy turned his head to eye the blond, they stared at each other. Demyx' hand shot out a while later to take the lilac haired boy's hand, holding it tight. Zexion returned the same affection. "Let's do it," the blond nodded firmly, seeking an agreement from his partner.

"Yeah... Before that... can I ask why?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you so...?"

"It's the same with you, right? Axel took me in when I have no where to go. He gave me freedom in the castle. Even though he's rude at times, he's still the one that saved me. That's all I need to keep me devoted." Demyx answered without any doubt.

Zexion nodded. "Okay."

_Hear our plea. We will trade our souls for the two souls that have been lost. Give them another chance to do it all over again. We give our loyalty to the Lord of this Castle and Roxas. In return, please show us your loyalty and grant our wish_

And slowly, flickers of light began appearing from their bodies. They were dissipating... separated into molecules. Demyx grinned and Zexion gave a small smile, still holding the crystal and holding each other's hands_._ And then...the two vanished into the void. The crystal dimmed and dropped to the ground.

Then...time passed.

--

It was a nice beautiful day and the town was as peaceful as ever.

In a certain minimarket, a boy was browsing through the little amount of shelves, walking around calmly and lazily, pushing a small cart. The crystal necklace he wore made tinkling, soothing sound as he walked. He blinked a while before his hand shot out, wanting to take a bar of chocolate, but then decided not to. His lips formed a pout as he corrected his small one-sided bag that was hanging off his shoulder. Pushing the cart aside, he stepped passed it and walked over to the cashier.

"Is there any reason why the chocolates here are..." he paused. "_Extremely_ expensive?"

"Excuse me?" came a soft but confused reply.

"I mean, seriously. How does this shop even manage to..." the blond paused again when his eyes finally met the person he was talking to. He gaped, his jaw dropped open in awe. Stood before him was the most gorgeous, yet at the same time weirdest and most peculiar person he had ever seen.

He quickly put a hand over his mouth so he didn't have to curl himself up in shame.

The redhead though was quite amused by the blond's reaction. He grinned brightly, watching the blond's cheeks grew pink. _That's adorable_.

"Yeah? You were saying?" the redhead leaned over, smirking.

"Uhmm..." the blond swallowed, gluing his eyes to the tile floor, shifting his weight left and right uncomfortably, feeling uneasy that a complete and total stranger was staring down at him like that. "You know... the chocolates..." the blond pointed timidly, always the shy one.

The redhead chuckled. _He's so adorable. _"What about them?" he asked, leaning in closer to the counter to take a better look at the blond. _Small, fragile, timid, and cute, just perfect._ _His hair is golden._ He smiled.

"Expensive?" the little blond answered uneasily. He took a deep breath then. "You know what? Never mind..." he spoke softly, about to walk away.

Before he was out of sight, the redhead quickly jumped out from where he was sitting, walked out of the store, approached the blond and grabbed his wrist. The blond yelped, blushing red pink. "Eh?"

"What's your name, little thing?"

Roxas cringed at the nickname, his lips forming a cute pout, bright cerulean eyes glaring at emerald. "Well, what's yours?"

"You can't answer a question with a question," the redhead smirked brightly, putting a hand to rake his unruly hair.

There was suddenly a soft wind blowing through the blond. _Axel._

The blond blinked. "What?"

"Huh?"

Roxas chuckled softly. "It starts...with an R, Axel."

"Huh?" The redhead was even more confused.

They stood and stared at each other like that. Comfortable silence enshrouding them. And Roxas smiled softly. Axel mirrored the smile.

The redhead broke into a huge grin, a sincere smile. "Roxas."

Roxas laughed happily, his eyes suddenly moist. "Are you sure it's not Rufus?" he choked out.

"I'm sure." Axel smiled, pulling Roxas into his embrace, hugging him close. He buried his face into Roxas' golden locks, deeply inhaling the scent and petting his head lovingly.

Roxas rested his head on the redhead's chest, enjoying the comfort.

"What...is that... poking me?" Axel asked, unsure. "You can't be... arou..." he paused.

Roxas pulled away as he blushed heavily and quickly backing away from the redhead. "No!" he yelled, forming a pout again and then sticking his tongue out.

Axel smirked.

Roxas then grabbed his bag and took out a bar of toblerone and with scary accuracy, threw it straight at the redhead. Axel was quick to react and he was able to catch the bar of chocolate easily. "Thanks, little thing."

The blond rolled his eyes.

"So, do we get to know each other?" the redhead inquired.

"And figure out why we know each other's name?" the blond smiled.

"Sure."

"Sure."

"Let's begin with... an introduction."

Roxas released a small chuckle, feeling the small strange familiar feeling in his heart. He couldn't exactly comprehend what was going on, but he somehow knew that he had known the redhead for a long time. All his life growing up, he had never before experienced such huge emotions.

Axel was amused and satisfied. Who'd have guessed that he'd met such a cute blond in the crappy place he was working at?

The blond nodded.

"Introduction sounds good."

"So, what do you like?"

"I love chocolates." Roxas smiled, answering easily.

The wind blew and the trees rustled, as if agreeing. Soft sunlight illuminated and brought out the smiles on their faces. Leafs blew passed them, trying to reach the sun, directed by the wind to the white clouds above.

And the crystal that Roxas wore shone, blinking as it made soothing clanking noise, stirred by the wind.

_Fin_

_--_

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you very much, everyone! Seriously. Thank you for still reading and reviewing and staying until the end. I really hope you enjoyed the fic thoroughly. If you have any question, feel free to drop by at terrahotaru dot deviantart dot com and leave me a message or just ask me here. 8) I'd be happy to answer. It's been a fun time. I hope you guys had a fun time reading this too. Now, time to concentrate on Dark Underworld and Harmony of the Sky. 8) Feel free to read my other fics if you'd like.

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Thanks so much! I'm so...happy and sad. This is the first time I've completed a long multi-chap! –burst in tears- (:


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